A recipe requires 2 1/2 cups of flour 2 3/4 cups of sugar

Question

A recipe requires 2 1/2 (mixed number) cups of flour 2 3/4 (mixed number) cups of sugar and 1 1/3 (mixed number) cups of milk to make one cake. Victor has 15 cups if flour, 16 cups of sugar and 8 cups of milk. What is the greatest number of cakes Victor can make using this recipe?

A. 5
B. 6
C. 7
D. 8
E. 9

A. 5
B. 6
C. 7
D. 8
E. 9

VeritasPrepRon · Accepted Answer

Hi clciotola, you can do this kind of question with more work up front or less work up front. I'd do it with less work up front so let's go through that method:

Less work up front: Go through each item and see what the greatest number of cakes you can make with each. The lowest of these will be the right answer.

Flour: 15 cups, we need 2.5 cups each. Just keep going up the line to see how many cakes we can make: That means I can make 2 cakes with 5 cups, so 6 cakes overall with 15 cups. I've already got the answer narrowed to either A or B.

Sugar: 16 cups, we need 2.75 cups each. Same principle. I can make 2 cups with 5.5 cups, so to make 6 cakes I'd need 16.5 cups. I don't have that much sugar, so we're limited to 5 cakes. No need to even do milk because we're already at 5. Sugar will be the limiting factor.

You can also do this by figuring out which item will be the limiting factor. Since you have halfes, quarters and thirds, you'll need to put them on common bases by multiplying by 12. This will be ugly and I don't recommend it, although it will eventually work out to the same answer.

Hope this helps!
-Ron

mkdureja · Answer

Easiest would be just crosscheck 1 by 1,
like, first check for flour, he has 15 cups, i.e. 15/2.5 = 6 cups can be made.
then come to sugar, sugar per cup (if he wants to make 6 cups of recipe) = 16/6 = 2+2/3 (what he has), but he need 2+3/4; so not available.
So, ans =5

arpanpatnaik · Answer

The answer would be . The idea is to pick out that ingredient which produces the minimal value when divided. Among the fractions: Flour = 5/2 Sugar = 11/4 and finally Milk = 4/3. I normally start with the terms with the lowest values and divide them to find the number of cakes possible. But Its actually safe to calculate them all, since it barely takes a min. Sugar leads to 16*4/11 which can be approximated to an integer as 5. For all the other ingredients the value is 6. Hence the minimal number would be taken into consideration!

Hope it helps! Regards, Arpan

mau5 · Answer

Given ratio of the ingredients =  \frac{5}{2}:\frac{11}{4}:\frac{4}{3}  --> Multiply by 6 = 15:16.5:8 Thus, for making 6 cakes, we need 16.5 cups of sugar, however as we have only 16, the no of cakes we can make is only 5.
A.

Bunuel · Answer

Similar questions to practice: miguel-is-mixing-up-a-salad-dressing-regardless-of-the-109740.html a-lemonade-stand-sold-only-small-and-large-cups-of-lemonade-123775.html m07-72458.html Hope it helps.

psal · Answer

A recipe requires 2 1/2 (mixed number) cups of flour 2 3/4 (mixed number) cups of sugar and 1 1/3 (mixed number) cups of milk to make one cake. Victor has 15 cups if flour, 16 cups of sugar and 8 cups of milk. What is the greatest number of cakes Victor can make using this recipe?

A. 5
B. 6
C. 7
D. 8
E. 9

-----------------

You will be limited by the ingredient that can bake the lowest number of cakes.

Flour: 15 / 5/2 = 6 cakes
Sugar: 16 / 11/4 = 5 cakes (round down since can't partial cake is equivalent to no cake)
Milk: 8 / 4/3 = 6 cakes

Limited by sugar. Can only bake 5 cakes.

law258 · Answer

I thought about this question logically...

If we know the amount available to us and the amount required, we will be able to figure out the answer based on whichever input we have the least of. That will significantly limit what we can do with the other two inputs.

(1) We have 5/2 (or 2.5 cups) of flour available to us --> 15/(5/2) = 6 recipes worth of flour 
(2) 11/4 cups of sugar --> 16/(11/4) = 5 recipes worth of sugar

We don't need to go beyond this point because we already have 5 as an answer choice.

baldururikson · Answer

So the ratios are f:s:m = 5/2 : 11/4 : 4/3

If you convert the information we're given into the respective fractions, we have 30/2 , 64/4 and 24/3.

Now it's all a matter of calculating how much of each ingredient "goes" into each cake.

So 30/5 = 6 possible cakes
 64/11 = 5 possible cakes (remainder)
 24/4 = 6 possible cakes

So we have the necessary amount of flour and milk for 6 cakes, but only enough sugar for 5, so answer is 5 cakes.

Kinshook · Answer

Given: A recipe requires 2 1/2 (mixed number) cups of flour 2 3/4 (mixed number) cups of sugar and 1 1/3 (mixed number) cups of milk to make one cake. Victor has 15 cups if flour, 16 cups of sugar and 8 cups of milk.

Asked: What is the greatest number of cakes Victor can make using this recipe?

Number of cakes that can be made from 15 cups of flour = 15/2.5 = 6
Number of cakes that can be made from 16 cups of sugar = 16/2.75 = 5.81 or 5 since number of cakes is an integer
Number of cakes that can be made from 8 cups of milk = 8/1.33 = 6

Greatest number of cakes Victor can make = min (6,5,6) = 5

IMO A

bumpbot · Answer

Hello from the GMAT Club BumpBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.

A recipe requires 2 1/2 cups of flour 2 3/4 cups of sugar

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Problem Solving (PS) Questions

A recipe requires 2 1/2 cups of flour 2 3/4 cups of sugar

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards