2 out of 5 students attend graduate school after college. If there are 750 seniors graduating, how many will attend graduate school?
A)75
B)107
C)214
D)300
I answered it like this 750/2=375. But that is a full half of graduating class which would have been correct if the question was stated 2.5 out of 5 students attend graduate school. So I rounded down to the nearest answer which is 300. I got it correct but that was just luck in my opinion because the question didn't ask to estimate. I know I didn't figure it out correctly and need someone to explain the steps. Thank you!
Best Answer
Solve for $x$ : $\frac{2}{5}=\frac{x}{750}$ ... Since this may or may not explain it to all, then how about this: We are given that the amount of students who are graduating senior students (let's call this $y$) is directly proportional to the students that go to gradate school (let's call this $x$). So we are give $y=kx$ where $k$ represents the constant of proportionality. We know that $(2,5)$ is on the line $y=kx$. We can use this to find $k$. So pluggin in we get $5=k(2)$ then $k=\frac{5}{2}$. So we have the equation $y=\frac{5}{2} x$. Now we are asked to find $x$ when $y=750$ . So plug in and solve for $x$ giving us $750=\frac{5}{2} x$ which implies $x=750 \cdot \frac{2}{5}$.