Question

Kyla used 550 grams of wool to knit a sweater, a hat, and a scarf. For the hat she used 5 times less wool than the sweater and 5 grams more than the scarf. How much did each item require.

Answer 1

This is the concept of algebra, to calculate the proportion of wool in each item we proceed as follows;
Let the amount of wool used for hat be x
amount of wool in sweater will be 5x
the amount of wool used in scarf will be x-5
 therefore the total amount of wool will be:
x+5x+(x-5)=550
x+5x+x-5=550
7x-5=550
7x=550+5
7x=555
hence;
x=555/7
x=79
the amount used in hat x=79g
amount used in sweater 5x=395g
amount used in scarf=79-5=74g