The first step in Jefferson's method is to find a standard divisor. To do this, add up the total "population" of students and divide the total by the number of available resources (tutors). In this case, the total number of students is 800, and the total number of tutors is 17. Dividing 800 by 17 we get 47 (whole number rounded down from the fractional result).
Next we divide each subset of student by this divisor, and round down the result.
Math = 345 / 47 = 7 (whole part only)
English = 245 / 47 = 5
Chemistry = 160 / 47 = 3
Biology = 50/ 47 = 1
Now we need to validate our answers, by adding up the tutors assigned to each subject.
7 + 5 + 3 + 1 = 16, which is too low.
This means we must decrease our divisor - each time we reduce the divisor by 1 and check our results.
For 46, 45, 44, the result remains 16.
Finally for 43, we get:
Math = 345 / 43 = 8
English = 245 / 43 = 5
Chemistry = 160/ 43 = 3
Biology = 160 / 43 = 1
And the total tutors assigned = 8 + 5 + 3 + 1 = 17, which is what we were looking for.
So, the tutors apportioned are as above with the modified divisor being 43.
