Final answer:
Out of 72 students, the number preferring pizza can be found using the ratio 3:2 in favor of chicken nuggets. Each part of the ratio represents 14.4 students. Therefore, 29 students prefer pizza.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question is about determining how many students prefer pizza when given the choice between pizza and chicken nuggets, with the preferences expressed in a 3:2 ratio in favor of chicken nuggets. Since there are 72 kids in total, we can use this ratio to find out the number of kids who prefer each option. We'll need to divide 72 into parts that are proportional to the ratio 3:2.
Firstly, let's add up the parts of the ratio: 3 (chicken nuggets) + 2 (pizza) = 5 parts. Since 72 is the total number of kids, each 'part' of our ratio is equal to 72 divided by 5. Therefore, 72 / 5 = 14.4. This means that each part of our ratio represents 14.4 kids.
Students who prefer chicken nuggets are 3 parts, so 3 * 14.4 = 43.2, but since we can't have a fraction of a student, we round it to the nearest whole number, which is 43 students preferring chicken nuggets. To find out how many prefer pizza, we take the 2 parts for pizza and multiply: 2 * 14.4 = 28.8, which we round to 29 students.
So, 29 students prefer pizza out of the 72 kids at the school.