Final answer:
To find how many votes Wendy received in a school election, we first calculated 5% of the total votes (540) which gave us Tom's votes. The remaining votes were then divided according to the 1:2 ratio between Olly and Wendy. Wendy, receiving twice as many votes as Olly, got 342 votes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question presents a situation where 540 students voted in a school election with four candidates: Tom, Rebecca, Olly, and Wendy. Tom received 5% of the votes and there is a ratio of 1:2 for the number of votes Olly to Wendy received. We are asked to find out how many votes Wendy received.
Firstly, we calculate 5% of 540 to find out how many votes Tom received:
- 540 x 0.05 = 27 votes for Tom.
Subsequently, we subtract Tom's votes from the total to find out the votes shared between Rebecca, Olly, and Wendy:
- 540 - 27 = 513 votes for Rebecca, Olly, and Wendy.
To find Wendy's votes, we consider the ratio of Olly to Wendy votes, which is 1:2. This means for every 3 votes (1 for Olly and 2 for Wendy) Wendy receives twice as many as Olly. Since the three parts represented by the ratio must add up to 513 votes, we divide 513 by 3 to find out the value of one part:
Since Wendy receives two parts, we multiply 171 by 2:
- 171 x 2 = 342 votes for Wendy.
Therefore, Wendy received 342 votes.
The subject addressed here is Mathematics, specifically, calculating percentages and working with ratios which is a common type of problem in high school level math.