How much water should we add to 35 kg of sugar syrup to change its concentration from 30% to 25%?

35kg - a mass of sugar syrup

30% of 35kg it's a mass of sugar

30% = 30 : 100 = 0.3

30% of 35kg = 0.3 · 35kg = 10.5kg - a mass of sugar

Add xkg water. Then we have (35 + x)kg of sugar syrup and still 10.5kg of sugar.

10.5kg is 25% of (35 + x)kg .

(35 + x) -- 100%

10.5  -- 25%     multiply both sides by 4

42   -- 100%

Therefore we have the equation:

35 + x = 42      subtract 35 from both sides

x = 7

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