An alloy of copper and zinc, the total weight of which is 2 kg and contains 75% copper. How much zinc will need to be added
An alloy of copper and zinc, the total weight of which is 2 kg and contains 75% copper. How much zinc will need to be added to this alloy in order to get a new alloy that will take up 60% copper.
To solve this problem, we introduce the conditional variable “X”, through which we denote the amount of zinc that must be added to the alloy. The first step is to determine how much zinc is contained in the initial amount of the alloy. We get (100% – 75%) x2 / 100% = 0.5 kilograms of zinc. Consequently, the original alloy contains 2 – 0.5 = 1.5 kilograms of copper. Now let’s make the following equation: 1.5 / (2 + X) = 60/100. Solving this equation, we get 1.5 / (2 + X) = 0.6 or 1.5 = 0.6 (2 + X) or 1.5 = 1.2 + 0.6X or 0.3 = 0, 6X or X = 0.5 kilograms of zinc.
Answer: 0.5 kilograms of zinc.