Final answer:
To determine what percentage of students were sick, the number of sick students (4) is divided by the total number of students (32) and the result is multiplied by 100, yielding 12.5%.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find what percentage of students were sick, first we need to express the number of sick students as a fraction of the total number of students. With 4 students home sick out of 32 students, the fraction is 4/32. To convert this fraction to a percentage, we multiply by 100, which gives us the equation (4/32) × 100.
Calculating this, we get (4 × 100) / 32 = 400 / 32 = 12.5%. Therefore, the correct answer is b) 12.5%.