Question

Avocado farmers use the percent of dry matter, the matter left after dehydration, from sample avocados in their orchards to determine the best time to harvest the avocados. If a sample of the flesh of the avocado weighs 10 grams (g) before dehydration, and 1.8 g after dehydration, what was the percent of dry matter in the sample?

Answer 1

That would be (1.8 / 10) * 100

= 0.18 * 100

= 18% answer

Answer 2

Remark

This is a very interesting application of math question. Thanks for posting.

The tricky part is interpreting the 1.8 grams. Is it the dry matter? Or is 8.2 grams the dry matter? It turns out that the dry matter is just the 1.8 grams because dehydration means getting rid of the water in a sample.

Formula

% dry matter = (dry matter/ total mass of the sample)* 100%

Givens

dry matter = 1.8 grams

Total Mass of the Sample = 10 grams

Solve

Percent dry matter = (1.8/10) * 100%

Percent dry matter = 18%