Question

The ratio of newcomers to returning students at the Midtown Adult

Learning Center is 3:7. Altogether there are 494 students at the center.
How many of them are newcomers?

Answer 1

Explanation:

Let's use algebra to solve the problem. Let's represent the number of newcomers as 3x, and the number of returning students as 7x, where x is some constant.

The total number of students is given as 494, so we can write:

3x + 7x = 494

Combining like terms, we get:

10x = 494

Dividing both sides by 10, we get:

x = 49.4

Since we can't have a fraction of a student, we need to round x to the nearest whole number. Since the ratio of newcomers to returning students is 3:7, we know that there are 3 parts of newcomers for every 10 parts of students. Therefore, the number of newcomers is:

3x = 3 * 49.4 = 148.2

Rounding to the nearest whole number, we get:

148

So there are 148 newcomers at the Midtown Adult Learning Center.