Question

1/6 of the girls and 2/7 of the boys in a school marching band are in the percussion section. The percussion section has 6 girls and 10 boys. How many students are in the marching band?

Answer 1

Let G be the number of girls and B be the number of boys in the band all together. 1/6 of all the girls is 6 girls so (1/6)G = 6 or G = 6·6 = 36 2/7 of all the boys is 10 boys so (2/7)B = 10 or B=(7/2)·10 = 7·5 = 35 So the band has 36 girls and 35 boys and that equals 71 students