1. ## Watermelons

A farmer has 10 tons of watermelons stored in a barn. The
watermelons contain 99% water, by weight. During storage, the
melons dry out so that their water content is decreased to 98% of their
new weight.
What is the weight of the watermelons now?

2. ## Re: Watermelons

This is pretty much just arithmetic. There are 10 tons of watermelons and the are 99% water. That means they are (10)(.99)= 9.9 tons water, 0.1 tons "non-water". The melons "dry out", losing only water so that their water weight is 98% of their new weight. Let the weight of water lost, in tons, be "w". Then their total weight is 10- w and their water weight is 9.9- w. That is a ratio of $\frac{9.9- w}{10- w}= .98$. Solve for w. The new weight of the water melons is 10- w tons.

3. ## Re: Watermelons

Originally Posted by SuperMaruKid
A farmer has 10 tons of watermelons stored in a barn. The
watermelons contain 99% water, by weight. During storage, the
melons dry out so that their water content is decreased to 98% of their
new weight.
What is the weight of the watermelons now?
what is the controlling dry out law, is it linear, logarithmic, expoential, or something else?

4. ## Re: Watermelons

Originally Posted by votan
what is the controlling dry out law, is it linear, logarithmic, expoential, or something else?
Absolutely irrelevant. They did dry out. How that happened or what the water weight was a some time while they were drying has no effect on the result.

I now see, by your responses to other questions, that you intended this as a joke. Sorry for misinterpreting.

5. ## Re: Watermelons

Hello, SuperMaruKid!

A farmer has 10 tons of watermelons stored in a barn.
The watermelons contain 99% water, by weight.
During storage, the melons dry out, so that their water content
is decreased to 98% of their new weight.
What is the weight of the watermelons now?

Originally, the watermelons are 99% water and 1% solids.

The farmer has 20,000 pounds of watermelons
The amount of solids is: $1\% \times 20,\!000 \:=\:200\text{ pounds.}$

When the melons are reduced to $x$ pounds, they will be 2% solid.
. . $2\% \times x \:=\:0.02x\text{ pounds}$

The amount of solids remains constant: . $0.02x \,=\,200$

Therefore: . $0.02x \:=\:200 \quad\Rightarrow\quad x \:=\:10,\!000\text{ pounds} \:=\:5\text{ tons}$