Algebra 2: Rational Recipe Adjustments 🧁➗
The Kitchen Challenge: You're a chef who needs to adjust recipes, calculate
concentrations, and manage ingredient costs. Rational expressions are your secret
ingredient for success!
Problem 1: Super Smoothie Scaling
A recipe for a smoothie that serves 2 people requires:
● 21cup of yogurt
● 43cup of mixed berries
● 1 banana
● x1cup of orange juice (where x is a variable based on desired tartness)
1. Write expressions for the amount of each ingredient needed if you want to make
enough smoothie to serve N people.
2. If you want to serve 5 people and desire a moderate tartness (let x=2), how much
of each ingredient do you need?
3. The cost of yogurt is Y dollars per cup, berries B dollars per cup, bananas N
dollars each, and orange juice J dollars per cup. Write a rational expression for
the total cost C(x) to make a smoothie serving 2 people, in terms of x,Y,B,N,J.
Problem 2: Perfect Punch Concentration
You are making a fruit punch.
● You have L liters of a fruit juice mixture that is 20 pure fruit juice.
● You want to add p liters of pure (100%) fruit juice to increase the concentration.
1. Write an expression for the initial amount of pure fruit juice in the L liters of
mixture.
2. Write an expression for the total amount of pure fruit juice after adding p liters of
pure juice.
3. Write an expression for the total volume of the punch after adding p liters.
4. Write a rational expression C(p) representing the new concentration of pure fruit
juice in the punch.
5. If you start with L=4 liters of the 20 mixture and want to achieve a 50
concentration, how many liters p of pure fruit juice must you add? Solve
C(p)=0.50.
Problem 3: Combined Work Rate
Two chefs, Anya and Ben, are icing cupcakes.
● Anya can ice all the cupcakes for an event in a hours.
● Ben can ice all the cupcakes for the same event in b hours.
1. What fraction of the cupcakes does Anya ice in one hour?
2. What fraction of the cupcakes does Ben ice in one hour?
3. Write a rational expression for the fraction of cupcakes they ice together in one
hour.
4. If they work together, their combined time T to ice all the cupcakes can be found
using the equation: (fraction by Anya in 1 hr+fraction by Ben in 1 hr)×T=1
(representing 1 whole job). Write this equation using a,b, and T.
5. If Anya can do the job in 3 hours (a=3) and Ben can do it in 2 hours (b=2), how
long will it take them working together?
Answer Key (Upside Down):
˙sɹnoɥ ᄅ˙Ɩ ɹo sɹnoɥ 9ϛ= ˙ϛ
Ɩ= (Ɩq+Ɩɐ) ˙ㄣ
q+ɐqɐ=Ɩq+Ɩɐ˙Ɛ
Ɩq˙ᄅ
Ɩɐ˙Ɩ :Ɛ ɯǝʅqoɹԀ
˙ǝɔᴉnɾ ǝɹnd ɟo sɹǝʇᴉʅ ㄣ˙ᄅ = d ppe ʇsnɯ noʎ ˙ϛ
d+˥ फरवरी⋅0d+˥=(d)Ɔ ˙ㄣ
d+˥ ˙Ɛ
d+˥ फरवरी⋅0 ˙ᄅ
˥ फरवरी⋅0 ˙Ɩ :ᄅ ɯǝʅqoɹԀ
\ſx+N+\Ɛㄣ+\ʎᄅ=(x)Ɔ ˙Ɛ
˙ǝɔᴉnɾ ǝɓuɐɹo ɟo dnɔ ϛㄣ؛sɐuɐuɐq ϛᄅ؛sǝᴉɹɹǝq pǝxᴉɯ ɟo dnɔ ϛƖ8؛ʇɹnɓoʎ ɟo dnɔ ϛㄣ˙ᄅ
˙ǝɔᴉnɾ ǝɓuɐɹo ɟo dnɔ Nxᄅ؛sɐuɐuɐq Nᄅ؛sǝᴉɹɹǝq pǝxᴉɯ ɟo dnɔ NƐ8؛ʇɹnɓoʎ ɟo dnɔ Nㄣ˙Ɩ :Ɩ
ɯǝʅqoɹԀ
