Question

at a hardeware store, 2/5 of the lawn mowers have 5-horsepower engines. The rest of the lawn mowers have 3.5-horsepower engines. what proportion of the lawn mowers have 3.5 horsepower-engines

Answer 1

Proportion:
`\sf (3)/(5)`

Explanation:

To find the proportion of lawn mowers with 3.5-horsepower engines, we can subtract the proportion with 5-horsepower engines from 1 (since the sum of both proportions should be 1 or 100%).

Given that ⅖ of the lawn mowers have 5-horsepower engines, the proportion with 5-horsepower engines is ⅖.

To find the proportion with 3.5-horsepower engines:

Proportion with 3.5-horsepower engines = 1 - Proportion with 5-horsepower engines

`\sf = 1 -( 2)/(5)`

`\sf = (5 - 2)/(5)`

`\sf = (3)/(5)`

So,
`\sf (3)/(5)` of the lawn mowers have 3.5-horsepower engines.