Can you help me with a math problem?

Question

Maggie is running for class president. A poll revealed that 40% of her class made voted for her. 32% voted for her opponent. 7 voters are undecided. Maggie needs 50% of the vote to win. How many of the undecided votes does she need to win?

I think that I should make it into a whole, but sadly, I don't know how. Help?

Answer 1

there are 7 undecided voters, which is equal to 28% of the class

meaning 1 voter is equal to 4% of the class

meaning there are 25 voters altogether

she had 40%, which is 10 people, she needs 13 people (cant have 12.5 people)

meaning she needs 3 votes from the undecided

Answer 2

32%
40%

these added is 72% so you know the left over people are the difference between 72-100. % means per hundred. Adding these together means you can find out undecided voters.

undeciders = 28%

You need to find out how much % each person is worth. 28% is the same as 7 people, so ...
28/7 = 4.

4% = 1 vote.
40% = 10 votes (which she already has)

you already know Maggie has 40%, so you need to work out how many votes she needs for that extra 10%.

4 x 2 = 8 ... you need two more percent to add on, so you just take half a vote to get to that 10% mark to add to the 40%
she needs at least 2 and a half more people to vote, but obviously one person can't only put in half a vote, so round it up to 3 more votes.


Hope this helps! Please don't bite my head off if this is wrong.

Answer 3

Let x = the total number of students in the class.

72% of the class are bacing a candidate, leaving 28% undecided; these are the 7 voters.

.28x = 7
x = 25

Maggie currently has 40% of the vote.

.40 * 25 = 10 voters.

She needs 50% of the vote

.50 * 25 = 13 (I rounded up in this case, since I'm assuming each voter only has one vote, which cannot be split... rounding down would leave her with less than 50%)

13 - 10 = 3

Maggie needs to convince 3 of the undecided voters to vote for her.

Answer 4

i think the answer is three. the combined percent of the two opponents is 72%, which leaves 28% undecided. There are 7 undecided voters, so each one has 4% of the vote. maggie needs 3 more votes to put her over the 50% mark, which gives her 52%.

Answer 5

Adding, we see that 72% voted for Maggie or Krista, leaving 28% undecided. This being 7 votes, there are 25 members in the class. Since she got 10 votes (Krista got 8), if she needs an absolute majority she will need 3 more.

Answer 6

of the class of 25, 10 voted for her (40 %)
8 voted against her (32 %), and 7 undecided(28 %). She would need THREE of the seven to have a MAJORITY (over 50 %) 13 of 25 is an unbeatable majority.

Answer 7

Well you know that the 7 undecided voters are equal to 28% of the election spread. Let's let x equal the percentage each vote is worth.

7x=0.28
x=0.04

So, that's 4%, and she needs to get over 50%, so she needs at least 3 voters.

3

Answer 8

if 32% and 40% are already decided tha makes 72 percent decided. so the 7 other make up 28%. If you divide that by 7(7 people) each person is 4%. and since you cant have a half of voter, 3 voters make up 12% so you would need 3 of the voters to voter for her

Answer 9

They say us old folk should do math to keep our brains from turning to mush. Hope the feedback is constructive. Here goes. Let x equal the number of students in the class.
.32x + .4x + 7 = x
7 = x - .72x = .28x
7 = .28x
x = 7 / .28 = 25 = number of kids in the class
40% of 25 is 10, Maggie's share of votes.
32% of 25 is 8, opponent's share
50 % of 25 is 12.5
Therefore Maggie needs 3 more votes.

Answer 10

7 undecided is 28% left
each person is worth 4%
so if she needs another 10% she needs 2 1/2 more votes?
or rounded up - 3 more people.

yikes. Havent had to use my brain all day. hope this helps!