Nicole is hosting a dinner party. She can make 5 dips using 7 containers of sour cream. If she needs 20 dips, how many containers of sour cream does she need?

Steps to Solve

1. Determine the number of dips per container To find out how many dips can be made with one container, we take the total number of dips and divide it by the number of containers used. Since 5 dips are made with 7 containers, we have: $$ \text{Dips per container} = \frac{5 \text{ dips}}{7 \text{ containers}} $$

2. Set up the proportion for 20 dips Next, we want to find out how many containers are required to make 20 dips. Let $x$ be the number of containers needed. We set up the proportion: $$ \frac{5 \text{ dips}}{7 \text{ containers}} = \frac{20 \text{ dips}}{x \text{ containers}} $$

3. Cross-multiply to solve for $x$ Cross-multiplying gives us: $$ 5x = 20 \times 7 $$

4. Calculate the right side Now, let's calculate the right side: $$ 20 \times 7 = 140 $$

5. Solve for $x$ So we now have: $$ 5x = 140 $$ To find $x$, divide both sides by 5: $$ x = \frac{140}{5} $$

6. Calculate the final answer Finally, let's perform the division: $$ x = 28 $$