During recess of the students play catch, 20% play soccer and the remaining 15 students watch a movie.
How many students are there in total?
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During recess of the students play catch, 20% play soccer and the remaining 15 students watch a movie.
How many students are there in total?
To solve this problem, we will find a common equation to account for all students:
The total number of students involved is . Thus, the setup for the equation is:
Simplify and solve for :
Subtract from both sides:
To isolate , multiply both sides by :
Therefore, the total number of students is 25 students.
25 students
Convert the fraction into a percentage:
\( \frac{2}{100}=\text{?} \)
20% means 20 out of 100, which equals . This makes the problem easier since both fractions have the same denominator!
That works too! Use 0.2x + 0.2x + 15 = x. Just be careful with decimal arithmetic and consider using fractions to avoid rounding errors.
The remaining students are those not counted in the first two activities. Since are accounted for, the remaining must be the 15 movie watchers.
You could try guess-and-check, but setting up an equation is much more reliable. It shows your thinking clearly and works for any similar problem, no matter the numbers.
Double-check your setup! Make sure you've correctly identified what each fraction represents and that all students are accounted for: playing + watching + other activities = total.
To isolate x from , we need to divide by the coefficient . Dividing by a fraction is the same as multiplying by its reciprocal: !
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