Question

On average, 38% of Americans will contract some form of cancer. If 123.5 millionpeople contract cancer in America, what is the population? Please answer in the format "x million people" where x is the number, OR "x people"where x is the number USING COMMAS (and would be much larger looking!) such as"2,900,000 people"

Answer 1

Since we were given the total number of people with cancer in America (123.5 million) and we know the percentage of the total population that represents (38%), we can use a rule of three to determine the total population of the country. This is done below:

`\frac{x\text{ million}}{123.5\text{ million}}=\frac{100\text{ \%}}{38\text{ \%}}`

We can now solve the formed equation to determine the value of x.

`\begin{gathered} (x)/(123.5)=(100)/(38) \\ x=(123.5\cdot100)/(38)=(12350)/(38) \\ x=325\text{ million} \end{gathered}`

The population is formed by 325 million people or 325,000,000 people.