Question

The ratio of the number of student to the number of teachers in a school is 17:5. If there are 35 teachers in the school how many students are in the school

Answer 1

119 students

Explanation:

Let's make a proportion using the following setup.

students/ teachers= students/teachers

We know that the ratio of students to teachers is 17 students to 5 teachers. We don't know how many students are in a school with 35 teachers, therefore we can say there are x students in a school with 35 teachers.

17 students / 5 teachers= x students/ 35 teachers

17/5=x/35

We want to find out what x is. In order to do this, we have to get x by itself.

x is being divided by 35. The inverse of division is multiplication. Multiply both sides of the equation by 35.

35*(17/5)=(x/35)*35

35*17/5=x

35*3.4=x

119=x

If there are 35 teachers in the school, there are 119 students.

Answer 2

42

Explanation:

840 pupils is represented by 20 parts of the ratio.

Divide number of pupils by 20 to find the value of one part of the ratio.

840 ÷ 20 = 42 ← value of 1 part of the ratio, thus

number of teachers = 42