Question

An electronics company produces transistors, resistors, and computer chips. Each transistor requires 1 unit of copper, 2 units of zinc, and 3 units of glass. Each resistor requires 2 units of copper and 3 units of zinc. Each computer chip requires 1 unit of zinc, and 5 units of glass. How many of each product can be made knowing that the company has 104 units of copper, 169 units of zinc, and 74 units of glass?

Answer 1

The capacity is 18 transistors, 43 resistors and 4 computer chips.

Explanation:

This problem can be solved by a system of equations.

I am going to say that:

x is the number of transistors that are made.

y is the number of resistors that are made.

z is the number of computer chips that are made.

Building the system:

A transistor requires 1 unit of copper. A resistor requires 2 units of copper. There are 104 units of copper. So
`x + 2y = 104`

A transistor requires 2 units of zinc. A resistor requires 3 units of zinc. A chip requires 1 unit of zing. There are 169 units of zinc. So
`2x + 3y + z = 169`.

A transistor requires 3 units of glass. A chip requires 5 units of glass. There are 74 units of glass. So
`3x + 5z = 74`

We have the following system:

`x + 2y = 104`

`2x + 3y + z = 169`

`3x + 5z = 74`

The solution is:

`x = 18, y = 43, z = 4`

The capacity is 18 transistors, 43 resistors and 4 computer chips.