The chef has 80 pounds of strip loin. the trim loss on the strip loin is 55% and the cooking loss is 60% of the trimmed weight. how many pounds of trimmed, cooked strip loin will the chef have left to serve to his customers?
give the answer and how you got that answer. thx!

Thanks a bunch !  I gained three pounds just reading this question,
and I drooled all over the keyboard.

-- You said that 55% is lost in trimming. 
So what you have left after trimming is

                             (100 - 55) = 45% of the raw loin.

-- You said that 60% of the trimmed weight is lost in cooking.
So what you have left to serve is

                             (100 - 60) = 40% of the trimmed weight

                                              = 40% of (45% of the raw loin).

If the chef started out with 80 pounds of raw loin, then

                   40% of (45% of the raw loin)

             =  0.40   x  (0.45  x  80 pounds)

             =  0.40   x  (      36 pounds      )

             =     14.4 pounds of trimmed, cooked, savory loin.

His lucky dogs gets the remaining

                    (80 - 14.4) = 65.6 pounds of fat, bones, and grease. 

But what's even more startling is that if he bought the raw loin for
$2.79 a pound (cheap), then the whole hunk cost him

                                       (80 x 2.79) = $223.20
 
at the butcher.  Then, if each serving in his restaurant was 1 pound
of trimmed, cooked, savory meat, and if he only wants to earn back
the $223.20 that he paid the butcher ... without getting anything
for the time he spent trimming and cooking it, and without earning
anything to pay the rent or any other expenses to run the restaurant
or pay for his daughter's braces or buy anything for his wife or to
put away for their retirement ... then he would have to charge

(223.20/14.4) =  $15.50  for each strip loin serving in his restaurant !