A man owning 3/8 of a ship sold 40% of his share. What part of the ship did he sell, and what part did he still own?

Question

 Calculations with percent: I have no idea how to solve this problem. Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

When you see 'of' think multiplication.

 

40% is exactly the same as 40/100 = 4/10 = 2/5  

 

He sold 2/5 of 3/8 of the ship, which is:  (2/5)*(3/8) = 6/40 = 3/20 of the ship.  <——<< Fraction sold

Thus, at after selling 2/5, he still owned  (3/8)*(3/5) = 9/40 of the ship.     <——<< Fraction retained 

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The last result can be sanity-checked:  the man owned 3/8 = 15/40 of the ship to begin with.  He sold 6/40

leaving him with (15-6)/40 = 9/40.