Question

A college cafeteria is looking for a new dessert to offer its 4,000 students. The table shows the preference of 225 students. Ice Cream Candy Cake Pie Cookies 81 9 72 36 27 Which statement is the best prediction about the slices of pie the college will need? The college will have about 480 students who prefer pie. The college will have about 640 students who prefer pie. The college will have about 1,280 students who prefer pie. The college will have about 1,440 students who prefer pie.

Answer 1

(b) The college will have about 640 students who prefer pie.

Explanation:

Given 36 of 225 students surveyed prefer pie, you want to know the best prediction of the number of slices of pie needed for 4000 students.

Proportion

The fraction of students surveyed who prefer pie is 36/225. We assume that will be the fraction of 4000 students who prefer pie, so the number of students is predicted to be ...

(36/225)(4000) = 640

The college will have about 640 students who prefer pie, choice B.