A builder mixes sand and cement in the ratio 5:2 to make mortar. He wants 14 buckets of mortar. How many buckets of sand and how many buckets of cement does he need?

10 buckets of sand and 4 buckets of cement

Step-by-step explanation:

The total we want is 14 buckets of mortar, so we cant exceed 14 buckets of sand and cement total or we would end up with more buckets than we want.

To get 1 bucket of mortal you mix 5/7 a bucket of sand and 2/7 a bucket of cement. You find this ratio based on the ratio they gave you 5:2. By adding both together to equal one bucket, 5/7 plus 2/7 equals 1 bucket.

After that we take both the ratios and multiply by the total number of buckets we want to end up with.

5/7*14=10 buckets of sand and

2/7*14=4 buckets of cement

we can check this by taking the total buckets of sand and buckets of cement and dividing to see if the ratio stays the same

10/4=2.5 and 5/2=2.5 we get the same ratio so we kept the statement true.