Need Help With A Math Problem

cziv

cziv

Joined
Nov 24, 2005
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I figured the brains & alchemists might reside in this forum. I really need some help with a mixture.

Here it is:

I ususally mix two powders together at a 1 to 1 ratio.

I had a large amount of powder given to me and I didn't have equal parts and having a brainfart, I mixed them together and now I'm stuck with a difficult math problem.

I mixed 16 ounces of X with 6 ounces of Y giving me an unbalanced mixture. I found another 6 ounces of Y today.

How much of the XY blend would I have to siphon off so that I can add the additional 6 ounces and end up with a 50/50 mixture of X & Y?

BTW: this is NOT a drug related question!!

Thanks in advance!! :)
 
You have to mix 13,2 ounches of XY mixture with the 6 ounches of pure Y. That is, siphoning out 8.8 ounches of mixture.

You have a 8/3 mixture there. Which is like saying you have 11 portions of mixture, 8 of which are made of X and 3 are made of Y (it's the same as saying 16 and 6, the proportion is the same)
13,2 /11 * 8 = 9,6

13,2 / 11 * 3 = 3,6 which, + 6 = 9,6

You'll get a mixture of 9,6 ounches X and 9,6 ounches Y

There must be a way to find it with a simple one variable equation, where X is the quantity you ask, but I'm too far from high school and too late in the night (2:05 here) to remember that, so I got it by eyeball and adjusted by trial and error in 3 tries.
It's what in software engineering call "brute force attack".
Me dumb. Me got me a calculator...
:D
 
Add 13.2 ounces of your mix to the 6 ounces of Y. (That's 60% of the mix).

13.2 ounces of mix is comprised of
9.6 ounces X
3.6 ounces Y

When you add 6 ounces of Y to that, you get even amounts of X and Y.

And yes, you should probably double-check my work before you actually mix anything...
 
Thanks Alarion!

I got antsy for a solution and poste in a reloading forum. That was the answer I was given - as well as admonitions of not blowing my hand off.

It's just for some pigments - dyes that I was flipping around in my mind. :)

MikeJackmin - Yours looks like the same solution. Thanks!
 
Maybe it's just me but if you try and siphon off bits of mixture to add some pure, you will never really have a 50/50 mixture as you will be pulling off both x and y, just more of x then y. It becomes a problem of diminishing returns. You may be better off finding 4 more ounces of y to add to the 6 you found, giving you 16 when added to the mixture. If you absolutely require a 50/50 mix that is.
 
It depends on the ingredients. Some chemicals will react once mixed and adding later won't help. You can add all the water you want to semi-hard cement that began with too little water and it won't help. You can, however, add more tequila to the punch with no problems.
 
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