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Expert: Sherry Wallin - 7/21/2009


Question
A nurse knew that g gallons of milk would feed s infants for 12 days, but she had s+15 infants. How many days would m gallons of milk last?

Answer
Hi Drew~
    One way to view this problem is to set up a proportion. Let's look at the number of gallons of milk per infant per 12 days:
g/s/12, now set that equal to the number of gallons of milk per infant per x days:
m/(s+15)/x giving us:
g/s/12 = m/(s+15)/x
now to make it easier put a 1 under the number of days:
g/s/12/1 = m/(s+15)/x/1 This is a complex fraction and becomes:
g/12s = m/x(s+15) cross multiply and solve for x:
gx(s+15) = 12sm -> x = 12m(s/g(s+15)) =  the number of days m gallons of milk will last s+15 infants

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Sherry Wallin

Expertise

I can answer most questions up through Calculus and some in Number Theory and Abstract Algebra.

Experience

I have had my Bachelor's Degree since 1987 and have been a teacher since 1988. I earned my Masters Degree in Mathematics May 2010. I have been teaching at the same community college since 2002.

Education/Credentials
I have taught 12 years at the community college level, medical college, and technical college as well as a high school instructor and alternative education instructor and charter school instructor.

Awards and Honors
Master's GPA 3.56 Bachelor's GPA 3.34 Post grad work not degree related GPA 4.0

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