1Cademy - Solving a Word Problem about the Recommended Daily Amount of Sodium in Cereal

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Finding the Total Recommended Daily Amount of Potassium

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Solving a Word Problem about the Recommended Daily Amount of Sodium in Cereal

Apply the seven-step problem-solving strategy to a percent application involving finding an unknown base with a single-digit percentage.

Problem: One serving of wheat square cereal has $190$ mg of sodium, which is $8\%$ of the recommended daily amount. What is the total recommended daily amount of sodium?

Identify what to find: the total recommended daily amount of sodium.
Name the unknown: Let $s$ = the total recommended daily amount of sodium.
Translate into a percent sentence followed by an equation: " $190$ mg is $8\%$ of the total amount" becomes: $190 = 0.08 \times s$
Solve the equation by isolating the variable. Divide both sides by the single-digit percentage converted to a decimal ( $0.08$ ): $\frac{190}{0.08} = s$

Performing the division gives: $s = 2{,}375$

Check: Is $8\%$ of $2{,}375$ equal to $190$ ? $0.08(2{,}375) = 190$ ✓
Answer: The total recommended daily amount of sodium is $2{,}375$ mg.

Updated 2026-04-22

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OpenStax Intermediate Algebra

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