Question

The residents of a city voted on whether to raise property taxes. The ratio of yes votes to novotes was 8 to 5. If there were 7320 yes votes,what was the totalnumber of votes?

Answer 1

If the ratio of yes (Y) to no (N) votes is 8 to 5 then that means:

`(Y)/(N)=(8)/(5)`

If there were 7320 yes votes then we have Y=7320:

`(7320)/(N)=(8)/(5)`

Then the no votes are:

`\begin{gathered} (7320)/(N)=(8)/(5) \\ N\cdot(8)/(5)=7320 \\ N=7320\cdot(5)/(8) \\ N=4575 \end{gathered}`

Then the total number of votes is given by:

`Y+N=7320+4575=11895`

Then the answer is 11895.