A fruit-salad mixture consists of apples, peaches, and grapes in the ratio 9:6:5, respectively, by weight. If 40 pounds of the mixture is prepared, the mixture includes how many more pounds of apples than grapes?
Select the correct option:
A) 15 B) 12 C) 8 D) 6 E) 4

Rationale: we can first set up our ratio using variable multipliers . we are given that a fruit - salad mixture consists of apples , peaches , and grapes , in the ratio of 6 : 5 : 2 , respectively , by weight . thus , we can say : apples : peaches : grapes = 6 x : 5 x : 2 x we are given that 39 pounds of the mixture is prepared so we can set up the following question and determine a value for x : 9 x + 6 x + 5 x = 40 20 x = 40 x = 2 now we can determine the number of pounds of apples and of grapes . pounds of grapes = ( 5 ) ( 2 ) = 10 pounds of apples = ( 9 ) ( 2 ) = 18 thus we know that there are 18 – 10 = 8 more pounds of apples than grapes . answer is c .
Answer: C