Question

At George Washington High School the ratio of graduating seniors that go on to college, as compared to those who do not, is 7 : 4. Last year 28 students went on to college. How large was the graduating class?

Answer 1

Hello! To find put how large the graduating class was, we can write and solve a proportion. First, let's find out how many students didn't go to college. Set it up like this:

7/4 = 28/x

This is because we are looking for the number of students that didn't go to college, and you have to line this up right in order to get the correct answer. Cross multiply the values to get 7x = 112. Divide each side by 7 to isolate the variable. 112/7 is 16. 16 students didn't go to college. Now, let's add the numbers. 28 + 16 is 44. There were 44 students in the graduating class.