Thread: algebra word problem

help please!

A pharmacist has two vitamin-supplement powders. The first powder is 20% vitamin B1 and 10% vitamin B2. The second is 15% vitamin B1 and 20% vitamin B2. How many milligrams of each of the two powders should the pharmacist use to make a mixture that contains 130 mg of vitamin B1 and 80 mg of vitamin B2?

any ideas on how to do this?

Originally Posted by GriceldaM

help please!

A pharmacist has two vitamin-supplement powders. The first powder is 20% vitamin B1 and 10% vitamin B2. The second is 15% vitamin B1 and 20% vitamin B2. How many milligrams of each of the two powders should the pharmacist use to make a mixture that contains 130 mg of vitamin B1 and 80 mg of vitamin B2?

any ideas on how to do this?

Hello GriceldaM
Let x & y be the quantity of first and second powder respectively.
First powder =0.2x (vit B1), 0.1x (vit B2)
second powder =0.15y (vit B1), 0.2y (vit B2)
Vit B1:
Vit B2:
Solve to get the values of x & y.

Originally Posted by GriceldaM

help please!

A pharmacist has two vitamin-supplement powders. The first powder is 20% vitamin B1 and 10% vitamin B2. The second is 15% vitamin B1 and 20% vitamin B2. How many milligrams of each of the two powders should the pharmacist use to make a mixture that contains 130 mg of vitamin B1 and 80 mg of vitamin B2?

any ideas on how to do this?

Lets say he took x milligrams of 1st and y mg of 2nd

-------------------------------------
So composition of 1st powder has

Amount of B1

Amount of B2

---------------------------------
Composition of 2nd powder has

Amount of B1

Amount of B2

----------------------------------------------

Total composition of B1 and B2 are equated to the given amount of each






Solve these two equations to get x and y