Carcass wrote:
If there are 10 liters of a 20%-solution of alcohol, how much water should be added to reduce the concentration of alcohol in the solution by 75% ?
A. 25 liters
B. 27 liters
C. 30 liters
D. 32 liters
E. 35 liters
When solving mixture questions, I find it useful to sketch the solutions with the ingredients
SEPARATED.
This way, it's very easy to keep track of each part of the mixture.
We get:
How much water should be added to reduce the concentration of alcohol in the solution by 75% ?75% of 20 = 15
20 - 15 = 5
So, we want the RESULTING mixture to be 5% alcohol.
In other words, we want the RESULTING mixture to be 5/100 alcohol.
We can write: 2/(10 + x) = 5/100
Simplify: 2/(10 + x) = 1/20
Cross multiply: 10 + x = 40
Solve: x = 30
Answer: C