@Jomo But psychologically, this is the hardest thing to do. You start down a wrong path because you see no other. And correcting that initial defect in vision just never occurs to you. I have spent days of serious effort trying to prove things that initially seemed to me to be necessarily true but were in fact false.Sometimes you have to see your mistake.
How can 15.2x/(x+y) equal both 12 and 20? This can't be!
Sometimes you have to see your mistakes.
How can 15.2x/(x+y) equal both 12 and 20? This can't be!
I think it is just a case of "bad" handwriting. I suppose it should beMake up a litre of the mixture:
let X be the fraction of a litre of Fruit Juice A that we use,
let Y be the fraction of a litre of Fruit Juice B that we use.
So X+Y=1 i.e. [MATH]\boxed{\,Y=1-X\,}[/MATH] **
Putting the two amounts of juice together gives 1 litre of the mixture.
Now, the cost of the litre of the mixture is:
20X + 12Y = 15.2
Using ** above, [MATH]\hspace2ex[/MATH] 20X + 12(1-X) = 15.2
8X + 12 = 15.2
[MATH]\begin{align*} \text{X}&= \tfrac{3.2}{8}\\ &= 0.4\\ \end{align*}[/MATH]So the ratio is 0.4 : 0.6 or 4 : 6 or 2 : 3
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