Final answer:
To find out how many fish 12 hawks need to eat, we can use proportions. If 4 hawks need to eat 8 fish a day, by setting up the proportion 4/8 = 12/x and solving for x, we find that 12 hawks need to eat 24 fish a day.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find out how many fish 12 hawks need to eat, we can use proportions. If 4 hawks need to eat 8 fish a day, we can set up the proportion: 4/8 = 12/x, where x represents the number of fish 12 hawks need to eat. To solve for x, we can cross multiply: 4x = 8 * 12, which simplifies to 4x = 96. Dividing both sides by 4, we find that x = 24. Therefore, 12 hawks need to eat 24 fish a day.