Question

The residents of a city voted on whether to raise property taxes. The ratio of yes votes to no votes was 8 to 5. If there were 7320 yes votes, what was the totalnumber of votes?

Answer 1

Explanation:

8 + 5 = 13

7320 * 13 / 8 = 11 895

Answer 2

The ratio of yes votes to no votes is given by:

`\frac{\text{ yes votes}}{\text{ no votes}}=(8)/(5)`

Then, if we replace "yes votes" with 7320 we have an equation for the amount of no vote:

`\frac{7320}{\text{ no votes}}=(8)/(5)`

Now we have to solve this for no votes:

`\begin{gathered} \frac{7320}{\text{ no votes}}=(8)/(5) \\ 7320=(8)/(5)\cdot\text{ no votes} \\ \text{ no votes}=(5)/(8)\cdot7320=4575 \end{gathered}`

Then the total number of votes is given by the sum of yes and no votes:

`7320+4575=11895`

So the total number of votes was 11895.