Question

Use the information given on page 285 to determine how much food a 12,500 pounds elephant eats per day.

Short answer

A 12,500 pounds elephant can eat 625 pounds food in a day.

Step-by-step solution

Step-1 – Given

Given that the weight of the elephant = 12,500 pounds.

Step-2 – To determine

We have to determine the amount of food that an 125000 pounds elephant can eat per day.

Step-3 – Calculation 

We know that an elephant eats 5 pounds of food for every 100 pounds.

Let, the required amount of food = x pounds.

The equation for x is given by,

$\begin{array}{c}\frac{5}{100}=\frac{x}{12500}\\ \frac{5}{100}\times 100=\frac{x}{12500}\times 100\left[\text{multiplyeachsideby100}\right]\\ 5=\frac{x}{125}\\ 5\times 125=\frac{x}{125}\times 125\left[\text{multiplyeachsideby125}\right]\\ x=625\end{array}$

So, a 12,500 pounds elephant can eat 625 pounds food in a day.