Tess adds 16 drops of yellow food coloring to a batch of frosting. This is 4 times the number of drops of red food coloring she added. Write an equation that shows how to find the number,r, of drops of red food coloring Tess added.
To write an equation that shows how to find the number of drops of red food coloring Tess added, let's start by assigning a variable to represent that quantity. Let's use "r" to represent the number of drops of red food coloring.
The problem states that Tess added 16 drops of yellow food coloring. It also states that this is 4 times the number of drops of red food coloring she added. So we can set up the equation:
16 = 4r
In this equation, 16 represents the number of drops of yellow food coloring, 4 represents the ratio between the yellow and red food coloring, and "r" represents the number of drops of red food coloring Tess added.
To solve this equation, we'll isolate the variable "r":
Divide both sides of the equation by 4:
16/4 = (4r)/4
4 = r
Therefore, the equation that shows how to find the number of drops of red food coloring Tess added is:
r = 4