Question

Jasmine has taken an online boating safety course and is now completing her end-of-course exam. As she answers each question, the progress bar at the bottom of the screen shows what portion of the test she has finished. She has just completed Question 16, and the progress bar shows she is 20% complete. How many total questions are on the test? Use a table, diagram, or equation to justify your answer.

Answer 1

Answer: 80 questions

Explanation:

To solve this, we need to know how percentage works. Percentage is used to express the ratio or proportion from one value to a second value used as a reference or maximun.

When expressing a percentage the maximun used for the percentage is 100. This is why 100% is used as a ideal ratio. See the following.

100% = 100/100

100% = 1

100/100 would mean the maximun value posible in the mayority of cases. So when expresing a number in percentage, 20% por example, is would mean:

20% = 20/100

20% = 1/5

Which give us a fifth of the total. Applying this to the problem, answering 16 questions would be equal to answering one fifth of the examen. To know how much questions there is on the total examen we need to know the following.

100% = 5 * 20%

So, changing values:

100% = 5 * 16 questions

100% = 80 questions