LESSON 14 Solving Mixture Problems
Many real-life problems involve mixtures. There are two basic types of
mixture problems. One type uses percents. For example, a metal worker may
wish to combine two alloys of different percentages of copper to make a third
alloy consisting of a specific percentage of copper. In this case, it is necessary
to remember that the percent of the specific substance in the mixture times
the amount of mixture is equal to the amount of the pure substance in the
mixture. Suppose you have 64 ounces of a mixture consisting of alcohol and
water and 30% of it is alcohol; then 30% of 64 ounces or 19.2 ounces of the
mixture is alcohol.
A table can be used to solve the percent mixture problems and an equation
can be written using
Mixture 1þMixture 2¼Mixture 3EXAMPLE:A pharmacist has two bottles of alcohol; one bottle contains a
10% solution of alcohol and the other bottle contains a 5% solution of
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