Question

Chester and Mary have pencils in a ratio of 2:4. Together they have 24 pencils. What percentage of the total pencils does Mary have? Round your answer to the nearest whole number.

Answer 1

She has 67% of the pencils.


Chester:Mary = 2:4 = 1:2
So, in the simplest case:
If Chester has one pencil Mary would have two.
There are three pencils.
Mary has two.
2/3 = 0.667 = 67% (rounded)

Answer 2

67%

Explanation:

To calculate the percentage, first add the numbers in the ratio together.

2 + 4 = 6

Divide the total number of pencils by this number

24 ÷ 6 = 4

Multiply this number by each side of the ratio (2 : 4)

4 x 2 = 8

4 x 4 = 16

the ratio of pencils that each of them has is 8 : 16

another way to express this is that:

Chester has 8/24 pencils and

Mary has 16/24 pencils

to work out the percentage of the pencils Mary has, convert the fraction to a decimal then multiply by 100 to work out the percentage.

16 ÷ 24 = 0.667

0.667 x 100 = 66.7 (round to the nearest whole number)

67%