Question

Ms. Albero decided to make juice to serve along with the pizza at the Student Government party. The directions said to mix 2 scoops of powdered drink mix with a half a gallon of water to make each pitcher of juice. One of Ms. Albero’s students said she will mix 8 scoops with 2 gallons of water to get 4 pitchers. How can you use the concept of proportion to decide whether the student is correct?

Answer 1

As long as the amount of water is proportional to the number of scoops of drink mix, then the second quantity, amount of water, can be determined by multiplying the first quantity by the same constant. In this case, if the amount of powdered drink mix is represented by

Answer 2

2 scoops of powdered drink mix = 1/2 gallon of water

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Multiply by 4
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2 x 4 scoops = 1/2 x 4 gallon of water
8 scoops = 2 gallon of water

The student is correct.