Mathematics Experiment #29

100 lbs. of cucumbers have 99% water content. They are purchased and while they are stored on a shelf, they lose some water content. They now have 98% water content. What do the cucumbers now weigh?

Solution:

Original cucumbers: 99% water content.

Therefore, there were originally 99 lbs. of water and 1 lb. of non-water cucumber parts.

The 1 pound of other non-water cucumber parts of course remain. The following would then be an expression to describe water content after the wait: (x is the number of lbs. of water in the cucumbers after the wait)

Therefore, there are 49 lbs. of water in the cucumbers after the wait. Therefore, with the 1 lb. of non-water cucumber parts, there are now 50 pounds of cucumber weight.