Mrs. Conley asks her class what kind of party they want to have to celebrate their excellent behavior. Out of all the students in the class, 5 want an ice cream party, 7 want a movie party, 10 want a costume party, and the rest are undecided.If 20% want an ice cream party, how many students are in the class?students
Q. Mrs. Conley asks her class what kind of party they want to have to celebrate their excellent behavior. Out of all the students in the class, 5 want an ice cream party, 7 want a movie party, 10 want a costume party, and the rest are undecided.If 20% want an ice cream party, how many students are in the class?students
Understand the problem: Understand the problem and what is given.We know that 20% of the students want an ice cream party and that 5 students have chosen this option.
Convert percentage to decimal: Write 20% as a decimal to use in calculations.20%=10020=0.20
Set up equation for total students: Set up the equation to find the total number of students in the class.Let the total number of students be represented by 'x'.According to the problem, 20% of 'x' is equal to 5 (since 5 students want an ice cream party).So, we have 0.20×x=5
Solve for total students: Solve the equation for 'x' to find the total number of students.Divide both sides of the equation by 0.20 to isolate 'x'.x=0.205x=25
Verify the solution: Verify the solution.If there are 25 students in the class, then 20% of 25 should be equal to 5.0.20×25=5This is true, so our solution is correct.
More problems from Percents of numbers: word problems