Question

to build the garden of your dreams you need 11 m^3 of coil containing 46% clay. you have two types of soil you can combine to achieve this: soil with 50% clay and soil with 28% clay. how much of each soil should you use?

Answer 1

Answer: 9m^3 of soil with 50% clay and 2m^3 of soil with 28% clay is required

Step-by-step explanation:

Let x represent the quantity of the soil containing 50% clay that you would use.

Let y represent the quantity of the soil containing 28% clay that you would use.

To build the garden of your dreams you need 11 m^3 of soil.

x + y = 11 - - - - - - - - -1

Since the soil must contain 46% clay, the total amount of clay required is 46/100 × 11 = 5.06 m^3.

you have two types of soil you can combine to achieve this: soil with 50% clay and soil with 28% clay. This means that the quantity of both soils required to achieve 5.06 m^3 will be

0.5x + 0.28y = 5.06 - - - - - - - -2

Substituting x = 11 - y into equation 1, it becomes

0.5(11 - y) + 0.28y = 5.06

5.5 - 0.5y + 0.28y = 5.06

- 0.5y + 0.28y = 5.06 - 5.5

- 0.22y = - 0.44

y = - 0.44/ -0.22 = 2

Substituting y = 2 into x = 11 - y, it becomes

x = 11 - 2 = 9