Question

What's one integer that could

be used as the
denominator of this fraction 1/[] to make its
value less than 23%?

Answer 1

Answer: 5

Or you could pick any integer larger than this.

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Work Shown:

23% = 0.23 in decimal form

x = some positive number

1/x < 0.23

1 < 0.23x .... see note below

0.23x > 1

x > 1/0.23

x > 4.347826 approximately

If x is an integer, then the smallest it can get is x = 5

Check:

• 1/x = 1/4 = 0.25 which is not smaller than 0.23
• 1/x = 1/5 = 0.20 which is smaller than 0.23

Note: The inequality sign does not flip in the 2nd step shown above because x is positive. The sign only flips if we multiplied both sides by a negative value.