Question

As a nurse, part of your daily duties is to mix medications in the proper proportions for your patients. For one of your regular patients, you always mix Medication A with Medication B in the same proportion. Last week, your patient's doctor indicated that you should mix 60 milligrams of Medication A with 78 milligrams of Medication B. However this week, the doctor said to only use 65 milligrams of Medication B. How many milligrams of Medication A should be mixed this week?

Answer 1

Given the word problem, we can deduce the following information:

1. Last week, your patient's doctor indicated that you should mix 60 milligrams of Medication A with 78 milligrams of Medication B.

2. This week, the doctor said to only use 65 milligrams of Medication B.

To determine the amount in milligrams of Medication A for this week, we first let x be the amount in milligrams of Medication A, and apply the process as shown below:

$\begin{gathered} \frac{60}{78}=\frac{x}{65} \\ Simplify\text{ and rearrange} \\ x=\frac{60(65)}{78} \\ Calculate \\ x=\text{ 50} \end{gathered}$

Therefore, 50 milligrams of Medication A should be mixed this week.