High School

Serena makes \(2 \frac{1}{4}\) cups of popcorn using \(1 \frac{1}{2}\) tablespoons of kernels. She wants to know how many tablespoons of kernels to use to make 6 cups of popcorn.

What amount of kernels does Serena use per cup of popcorn?

Answer :

Final answer:

Serena uses 3/4 tablespoons of kernels per cup of popcorn to make 6 cups of popcorn using 4 1/2 tablespoons of kernels.

Explanation:

To find out how many tablespoons of kernels Serena needs to make 6 cups of popcorn, we can set up a proportion based on the ratio of cups of popcorn to tablespoons of kernels. Since Serena uses 2 1/4 cups of popcorn with 1 1/2 tablespoons of kernels, we can represent this as 9/4 cups per 3/2 tablespoons of kernels. To find out the amount of kernels needed for 6 cups of popcorn, we need to scale this ratio up by a factor of 6/2. Multiplying 3/2 by 6/2 gives us 9/2 tablespoons of kernels. Therefore, Serena needs 9/2 tablespoons of kernels to make 6 cups of popcorn. To find the amount of kernels per cup of popcorn, we divide the total amount of kernels (9/2 tablespoons) by the total number of cups (6). This results in 3/4 tablespoons of kernels per cup of popcorn. Therefore, Serena uses 3/4 tablespoons of kernels per cup of popcorn.