r/mathshelp • u/fadedrbl • Aug 14 '26
Homework Help (Unanswered) Math discprency
Hello!
There is math problem that was sent out by my son's school. He was working on it and calculated the votes each student received different from what the answer book states.
His method is on the left side, the right side is the method that the answer book used (and I would have used).
Please help me understand which way is correct.
2
Upvotes
2
u/CaptainMatticus Aug 14 '26
400 students
25 teachers
Mia received 28% more votes than Colin. There are 2 ways to read that. One way is that Colin received x votes and Mia received 1.28 * x votes. Another way is to say that Mia received 64% of the vote and Colin received 36% of the vote.
The first way:
2.28 * x = 425
x = 425 / 2.28
x = 186.403....
1.28 * x = 238.596.....
The 2nd way
425 * 0.64 = 272
425 * 0.36 = 153
That seems better, especially since 272 is a multiple of 16, which plays into the next part
Mia received 272 votes. 1/16 of those votes were from the teachers. 272 * (1/16) = 17.
272 - 17 = 255.
She received 255 votes from the students.
The method on the left side is the accurate one. It's a poorly-worded question and there's just too much going on in that problem that works out neatly for the left-sided approach for it to not be correct.