Yesterday, 5/6 of the 240 students in a contest gave their speeches. How many students gave their speeches? Write your answer in simplest form.

Answer 1

(5/6)(240) = ?

Answer 2

For this question, let’s look deeper into how many students are expected to give a speech in all. This total number is 240. Next, consider the denominator, 6 and divide the total, 240 by 6. 

240/6= 40 

We now know that each “sixth” is 40 students.

Now let's look at the numerator, 5. This is the part of students who gave a speech. (Remember, this is the question we need the answer to.) Let’s take and multiply 5 by 40 to get 200.

5 X 40 = 200

Solution: 200 students have given their speeches.

Tip: It might help to notice that 6 X 4 is 24 and that our total is ten times that. We can look at a basic multiplication fact and then consider the factor of X 10.

*** Since 6 x 4 = 24 then 6 x 40 = 240.

*** Since 5 x 4 = 20 then 5 x 40 = 200.