over the past week, 34 baby boys were born at the hospital. this was 54% of all babies born. how many girls were born over the past week

Question

This is a porportion word problem. The answer is 29, but I don't have an idea how they got that?!?! Please help me.

Answer 1

Nazret, if you are solving this as a proportion, then you need to set up is/of = is/of.

 

What do we have? If we let g = the number of girls, then...

 

34/54 = g/46

 

Where did the 46 come from? If 54% were boys, then 46% must be girls, to total 100%.

 

Now, cross multiply.

 

54g = (34)(46)

54g = 1564

    g = 29

 

So, 29 were girls. Hope this helps!