Final answer:
To determine what percent of the class are women, subtract the number of boys (16) from the total students (28) to find the number of girls (12). Then, divide the number of girls by the total number of students and multiply by 100 to get the percentage, which is approximately 42.86%.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find out what percent of the class are women, we first need to calculate the number of women in the class. Since there are 28 students in total and 16 are boys, we subtract the number of boys from the total number of students to find the number of girls: 28 students - 16 boys = 12 girls. Now, we set up a fraction to represent the portion of the class that is girls: 12 girls / 28 students.
To convert this fraction into a percent, we create an equivalent fraction with 100 as the denominator. This allows us to directly read off the percentage. The fraction for the girls' portion is 12/28, and we set it equal to x/100. Cross-multiplying gives us 28x = 1200. Dividing both sides by 28 gives us x = 1200 / 28, which simplifies to approximately 42.86%. Therefore, approximately 42.86% of the class are women.