A container has peppermint gum and spearmint gum. There are 40 pieces of peppermint gum in the container and the ratio of peppermint gum to spearmint gum is 5 : 2. Find the number of pieces of spearmint gum in the container.

16 pieces of spearmint gum

Step-by-step explanation:

For every five pieces of peppermint gum, there are 2 pieces of spearmint gum.

First, divide the total number of peppermint gum by 5:

40/5 = 8

Multiply this number by 2 (pieces of spearmint) to get the number of spearmint gum pieces:

8 x 2 = 16

Proof:

Ratio is 40 : 16, dividing this by 8 will reduce the ratio to 5:2

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55