Nancy wants to put a birdseed mix in her birdfeeder. The mix is 20% wild birdseed and 80% sunflower seed. How much sunflower seed does she need to fill the birdfeeder? Show your work or explain your reasoning to justify your answer

we have three similar triangles, because each has a right angle and shares an angle.   let's write the angles in order: opposite to short leg, long leg, hypotenuse.

cab similar to bad similar to cbd

or as ratios,

ca: ab: cb = ba: ad: bd = cb: bd: cd

we also know

ac = ad + cd

(ad+cd): ab: cb = ba: ad: bd = cb: bd: cd

(ad+cd)/cb=cb/cd

we have cb=6, ad=5 and seek x=cd.

we reject the negative root and conclude x=4

answer: 4

take the logarithm of both sides (the base of the log doesn't matter):

apply the exponent property - this says that :

distribute the log terms on both sides:

group like terms together:

divide through both sides by the coefficient on :

you can do some additional rewriting here using the properties of the logarithm to simplify things if you like:

6-3=3

3*3=9

9+12=21

21/3=7

7*8=56

56 is your answer