Can I get some help

Question

A cafeteria manager needs to know how many apples and bananas to to order. He asked students to choose either an apple or a banana as their preferred fruit. The survey results know that of the students who responded, 3/5 picked bananas. If 45 students picked bananas, how many picked apples?

Answer 1

HOW MANY PICKED APPLES?

One way to translate this problem is to say,

" 3 IS TO 5 AS 45 IS TO THE NUMBER OF APPLES".

We have two ratios or fractions, and they equal each other.

Let A = the number of apples.

3 45

----- = --------

5 A

3A = 5 * 45 (Using CROSS MULTIPLICATION)

3A = 225

3A/3 = 225/3 (Divide both sides by 3)

A = 225/3 (The 3's cancel each other out)

A = 75

ANSWER: 75 APPLES

CHECKING:

IS 45 THREE-FIFTHS OF 75?

OR, DOES 3 45

----- = ---------

5 75

If you reduce 45/75 by dividing both the numerator and denominator by 15, you get 3/5.

And, 3/5 = 3/5

HOPE THIS HELPS ANGELIA.