Problema Solution

how much pure acid should be mixed with 7 gallons of 50% acid solution in order to get an 80% solution?

Answer provided by our tutors

Originally you have 3.5 gallons of acid and 3.5 gallons of water.  In the final solution, you want those 3.5 gallons of water to be 20% of the total liquid.  The total amount of liquid (100%) is therefore 5 x 3.5 (because 100% = 5 x 20%).  5 x 3.5 = 17.5 gallons.

We want 80% of those 17.5 gallons to be acid.  80% of 175 is 0.8*17.5=14.0.  We already had 3.5 gallons of acid, so we need to add 14-3.5 = 10.5 gallons more.

The answer is 10.5 gallons.