Question

If a 150 pound woman would receive 24 grams of a certain medicine. How many grams should a 120 pound woman receive?

Answer 1

With a problem like this, set up a proportion (like when making lemonade from a mix).

$\frac{weight}{medicine} = \frac{weight}{medicine}$ is our proportion.

We fill in the the two weights and the 24 grams of medicine in the proportion and solve for the fourth piece not there.

$\frac{150}{24} =\frac{120}{M}$

We shorten medicine to M and we solve for M by cross multiplying.

$150M = 2880$

$M = \frac{2880}{150} = 19.2 grams$

The woman should get 19.2 grams of medicine.