Question

A school has 500 students. If the ratio of number of boys to number of girls is 23:27, how many more girls than boys are there in the school? *

Answer 1

Answer:

Let's let "5x" represent the number of boys in the school play and "7x" represent the number of girls in the school play.

5x = boys

7x = girls

If we know that the total number of students in the play equals 48, then that must me that both the number of boys and girls combined must equal 48:

5x + 7x = 48

12x = 48

x = 4

Now, take your x-value and plug it into both the boys' and girls' values to figure out how many boys and girls there are in the play:

5x = 5 (4) = 20 boys

7x = 7 (4) = 28 girls

To find out how many more girls there are than boys in the play, just subtract the number of girls minus the number of boys:

# girls - # boys = 28 - 20 = 8

This means that there are 8 more girls than boys in the school play.