What is the least number of people that could be represented by each percentage. Remember, there is no such thing as a "part of a person" in this exercise. The person is alive and whole.
#1. 27.85%
#2. 26.58%
#3. 17.72%
#4. 12.03%
#5. 7.59%
#6. 8.23%
The percentages add up to 100%. The population number is not known by me. I do not have the answer. I am looking to have somebody who understands math to explain how this problem is to be solved and to provide the solution.
2007-10-16 05:38:10 · 5 answers · asked by old nuff 2 B yer grandpa 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
I'm not disputing your math, but 10,000 seems unreasonable. This is from a voting poll to determine a winner of a contest. X number of people voted for #1 and that unknown number of people is represented by the 27.85%. Each percentage figure represents only those people who voted once for one of the 6 candidates. Nobody voted twice or for more than one person. How many people are represented by each percentage listed?
2007-10-16 06:54:13 · update #1
One easy solution is to multiply each percentage shown by 100 to convert to integral values. This would leave you with a population of 10,000 people, broken out as follows:
1. 2785 (or 27.85% of the total)
2. 2658
3. 1772
4. 1203
5. 759
6. 823
Edit - this is the smallest population that will meet your needs.
823 is a prime number so there is no common divisor that would allow you to divide each individual value to calculate a smaller total population without having fractional people.
2007-10-16 05:49:09 · answer #1 · answered by Steve 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Here's what I would do. First, turn the percentage into a fraction.
27.85% = 27.85/100
Then, multiply top and bottom by 100 (so we don't have any decimals. 2785/10,000
Then, simplify that fraction as much as possibly dividing out common facts (right off the bat, you can divide 5 out, but not 2). Then, when it's simplified down, the smallest number of people that can represent that fraction with "parts of people" is the number in the denominator.
2007-10-16 05:53:31 · answer #2 · answered by swrogueman 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There seems to be something missing here. If you have the same population for each percentage given, there should be some reason about what each percentage means.The observation that the percentages add up to 100 per-cent would suggest that you are looking at a distribution that lies between about 7 and 29 percent.
2007-10-16 05:53:57 · answer #3 · answered by cattbarf 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There is more than one answer but the smallest population would happen when you multiply each value by 100 to clear the decimals.
After that you can multiply by any whole number that tickles your fancy to get workable numbers.
2007-10-16 05:55:03 · answer #4 · answered by Brian K² 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it is 10000
if you write out the "percentages as whole numbers
(2785, 2658, 1772, 1203, 759, 823)
than you see that the greatest common divisor for the first 2 ((2785, 2658)) is 1
so the maximal percentage that can correspond to one person is 0.01%
2007-10-16 06:06:35 · answer #5 · answered by arkadaur 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋