Question

When making lasagna, Mr. Harrington uses 1 pound of sausage for every 3/4 of a pound of mozzarella cheese. For a dinner party, Mr. Harrington wants to make an extra large lasagnawith 1 pound of mozzarella cheese. How much sausage will he need?Simplify your answer and write it as a proper fraction, mixed number, or whole number.

Answer 1

You know that for every pound of sausage, Mr. Harrington uses 3/4 of a pound of mozzarella cheese for the lasagna.

To determine how much sausage he needs if he wishes to use one pound of mozzarella cheese, you can use cross multiplication:

3/4pound mozzarella _______ 1 pound sausage

1 pound mozzarella ________x pound sausage

Both relationships are at the same ratio so that:

$\frac{1}{\frac{3}{4}}=\frac{x}{1}\to\frac{4}{3}=x$

You can express the result as a mixed number:

$\frac{4}{3}=1\frac{1}{3}$

For every pound of mozzarella cheese, he needs 1 1/3 pounds of sausage.