fraction of Prealgebre

Question

3/5 of the people buying a certain car had an income greater than $40,000. Of these, 5/6 had an income greater than $50,000. What fraction of all the people buying the car had an income greater than $50,000 ?

Answer 1

Hi Keri,

 

There are two ways to think about solving this problem.

 

One way is to use a real easy number of people.  . . 100 is easy.

 

3/5 of 100 is 3/5 x 100 = 300/5 = 60

 

5/6 of 60 = 5/6 x 60 = 300/6 = 50

 

Since 50 is half of 100, the fraction of all people buying the car with an income greater than $50,000 is 1/2.

 

The other way to do this is to realize that the question is asking you to take 5/6 of 3/5.

 

"OF" generally means multiplication so 5/6 x 3/5 = 15/30 = 1/2

 

Dan