An artisan bakery produces a signature flour blend by combining wheat, rye, and oat flour. Initially, the ratio of wheat flour to rye flour by weight is , and the ratio of rye flour to oat flour by weight is . The baker prepares an initial batch of this mixture weighing exactly pounds. To adjust the recipe for a special order, pure oat flour is added to the batch until oat flour accounts for exactly of the total weight of the new mixture. How many pounds of pure oat flour must the baker add?
- A12
- B16
- 20Cevap
- D28
- E32
Cevap
20 pounds
To solve this problem, first express the ratios of wheat, rye, and oat flour with a common term for rye. Since Wheat : Rye = 5 : 3 (or 20 : 12) and Rye : Oat = 4 : 1 (or 12 : 3), the combined ratio Wheat : Rye : Oat is 20 : 12 : 3, giving 35 total parts. In a 140-pound batch, each part equals 4 pounds, meaning the batch contains 12 pounds of oat flour and 128 pounds of non-oat flour. When additional oat flour is added, the non-oat weight stays fixed at 128 pounds. For oat flour to be 20% of the new mixture, non-oat flour must be 80%. Dividing 128 by 0.80 gives a new total weight of 160 pounds. The new oat weight is 20% of 160, which is 32 pounds. Subtracting the initial 12 pounds yields 20 pounds of added oat flour.
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Anahtar Kavram
Combining multi-part ratios and solving ratio adjustment problems by holding unchanged components constant.