Question

Taking a shower accounts for about 20% of your daily water usage. You use 60 gallons of water daily for other purposes. How many gallons of water do you use daily while taking a shower?

ITS NOT 12.

Answer 1

15 gallons of water

Explanation:

Let your daily water percentage by represented by x. We know 20% of x is being used for your shower. This means the other 80% of x is being used for other purposes. We also know that 80% of x is 60 gallons of water. This can also be written as...

80% x = 60

Now, all we need to do is isolate the variable to find the your total water usage. Percentages can also be represented as fractions. A percentage as a fraction is...

`\frac{\text{percentage number}}{100}` , so:

80/100 · x = 60 ⇒ Simplify the Fraction

4/5 · x= 60 ⇒ Multiply both sides by 5

4x = 300 ⇒ Divide both sides by 4

x = 75

You use 75 gallons of water total. 20% of this is used for a shower so...

20% · 75 = 20/100 · 75 = 1/5 · 75 = 15 gallons of water