Question

A leaky faucet is losing water and is filling a 5-gallon bucket every 20 hours. At that rate how many gallons of water will the faucet leak in 48 hours.

Answer 1

To solve this problem, let's set up a proportion, letting x represent the unknown number of gallons the faucet loses in 48 hours.

5 gallons / 20 hours = x gallons / 48 hours

To solve this proportion, we are going to use cross-products.  This is the products of numerator of one fraction and the denominator of the other fraction set equal to one another.  It results in the equation:

5 * 48 = 20 * x

Next we simplify by performing the operations.

240 = 20x

Finally, we divide both sides by 20 to get x alone on the right side of the equation.

12=x

Therefore, 12 gallons of water will be lost in 48 hours.

Answer 2

5gallons leakout every 20 hours
5g:20h
fractionify
5g/20h=g/4h
g:4h

how many gallons in 48 hours
xgallons:48
assume constant rate of flow so
g:4h=x:48
fractionfy
g/4h=x/48h
multiply both sides by 48h
12g=x
answer is 12 gallons