Expert: Josh - 7/19/2006

Question
Thank you for your response. Did you say that there are 113 milligrams of sodium in a 113-gram carton? But did you take into consideration that there are a thousand milligrams in a gram? Thank you. Al Brown
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Followup To

Question -
With regard to Morningstar Scramblers, there are 95 milligrams of sodium in a 57-gram serving size. Please tell me how many milligrams of sodium there are in a 113-gram carton? Thank you very much for your response.

Answer -
Hi Al,

I'm not sure if you received my reply. I remember having answered this question already. But I don't mind repeating this again.

We are looking for equal proportions here. In this context, proportion actually refers to the concentration of sodium in the liquid. The main concept is that the concentration of sodium does not change whether we consider a 57 gram sample or a 113 gram sample.

Mathematically, we express this as 95/57=x/113. This implies that there are x milligrams of sodium in a 113 g sample. We solve for "x" knowing that there is 95 milligram of sodium in a 57 g sample.

We obtain the answer using the "cross-multiplication" technique. Very simply, if we multiply both sides of the equation 95/57=x/113 by 113, we get
x=113*(95/57) [measured in milligrams].

You can use a calculator to simplify the answer.

Cheers.

Answer
With reference to the equation 95/57=x/113, x represents the amount of sodium in a 113 g sample. x=113*(95/57) milligrams. The only reason I have not simplified this is because I don't have a calculator with me to get the exact figure. But x definitely does NOT represent 113 mg of sodium.

The figures in the numerator (above the fraction bar) are all measured in milligrams. The figures in the denominator (beneath the fraction bar) are all measured in grams.

If you like, you can expressed all measurements in milligram. In this case, we have 95/57000=x/113000 which is equivalent to 95/57=x/113 (after we multiplied both sides by 1000).

Alternatively, you can measure everything in grams (i.e., expressing x - the amount of sodium also in grams). In this case, we have 0.095/57=x/113, which gives x=113*(0.095/57) gram.