Question

A local bookstore tracked the type of payments people make at their store. Out of 100 people, 40 paid with cash, 55 paid with a credit card and 5 used a gift card. Based on this information, what is a reasonable prediction of the number of people paying with cash if they had 600 customers?

Answer 1

240

Explanation:

Set up a proportion. Out of 100 people, 40 people paid with cash. Out of 600 people, x people paid with cash.

`(40)/(100) =(x)/(600)`

Cross multiply and solve for x.

`24000 = 100x\\24000/100=100x/100\\240 =x\\x=240`

240 customers paid with cash.

Answer 2

Cash = 240, Credit = 330, Gift = 30

Explanation:

We know from this the precentage of people using different payment methods

Cash = 40/100 = 40%

Credit card = 55/100 = 55%

Gift card = 5%

We can then find the number of people using each method regardless of total amount of people

Cash = 40% * 600 = 240

Credit = 55% * 600 = 330

Gift card = 5% * 600 = 30

Total = 240 + 30 + 330= 600