Ellie would like to build the garden of her dreams. She needs 27 cubic feet of soil containing 12% clay. She has 2 types of souls that she can combine to achieve this: soil with 27% clay and soil with 15% clay. How much of each should she use?

Question

Mathematics

Kenya Wallace

18 March, 07:03

Ellie would like to build the garden of her dreams. She needs 27 cubic feet of soil containing 12% clay. She has 2 types of souls that she can combine to achieve this: soil with 27% clay and soil with 15% clay. How much of each should she use?

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Answers (1)

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Vanessa Frey · Answer 1

To determine how much she should use for every type of soil, we need to set up equations. We do as follows:

Let x = amount of the soil with 27% clay

y = amount of the soil with 15% clay

We have two unknowns so we need two equations.

First equation,

x + y = 27

Second equation,

.27x +.15y = (27) (.12)

.27 +.15y = 3.24

Solving x and y,

x = - 6.75

y = 33.75

Since we have a value that is negative, it would be impossible to make a 12% clay soil with the given soils.