Gloria wants to make beef stroganoff for 12 people. Her recipe serves 8 people and calls for 4.5 pounds of ground beef. How much ground beef should Gloria purchase?

6.75 pounds

Step-by-step explanation:

This question is of direct variation. We will use x as our answer. 8 is 2/3 of 12, so 4.5 should be 2/3 of x. We can now make an equation.

In order to solve the equation, we multiply both sides by the reciprocal of 2/3, which is 3/2.

* stands for multiplication

From solving our equation, we get 6.75. We can't forget the units, so the answer is 6.75 pounds.