arah Meeham blends coffee for Tasti-Delight. She needs to prepare 120 pounds of blended coffee beans selling for $ 4.75 per pound. She plans to do this by blending together a high-quality bean costing $ 5.25per pound and a cheaper bean at $ 3.25 per pound. To the nearest pound, find how much high-quality coffee bean and how much cheaper coffee bean she should blend.
h + c = 120 ... 13 h + 13 c = 13 * 120
5.25 h + 3.25 c = 4.75 * 120
... dividing by .25 ... 21 h + 13 c = 19 * 120
subtracting equations ... 8 h = 6 * 120
solve for h , then substitute back to find c
If using x lbs of cheaper coffee, then
3.25x + 5.25(120-x) = 4.75*120
x=30, so
30 lbs cheap, 90 lbs expensive
makes sense, since 4.75 is much closer to 5.25 than it is to 3.25
To find how much high-quality coffee bean and cheaper coffee bean Sarah should blend, we can set up a system of equations.
Let's assume she needs to blend x pounds of high-quality coffee bean and y pounds of cheaper coffee bean.
According to the problem, she needs to prepare a total of 120 pounds of blended coffee beans. Therefore, we can write the first equation as:
x + y = 120
Next, we know that the blended coffee beans will sell for $4.75 per pound. The cost of the high-quality coffee bean is $5.25 per pound, and the cheaper coffee bean is $3.25 per pound. So, the second equation can be written as:
(5.25 * x) + (3.25 * y) = 4.75 * 120
Now, we can solve this system of equations.
First, multiply the first equation by 3.25 to eliminate y:
3.25x + 3.25y = 3.25 * 120
Next, subtract the above equation from the second equation:
(5.25 * x) + (3.25 * y) - (3.25x + 3.25y) = 4.75 * 120 - 3.25 * 120
This simplifies to:
5.25x - 3.25x = 570 - 390
2x = 180
Divide both sides by 2:
x = 90
Now, substitute this value of x into the first equation to find y:
90 + y = 120
y = 120 - 90
y = 30
Therefore, Sarah should blend 90 pounds of high-quality coffee bean and 30 pounds of cheaper coffee bean.
To summarize, Sarah should blend 90 pounds of high-quality coffee bean with 30 pounds of cheaper coffee bean to prepare 120 pounds of blended coffee beans.