Question

A book sold 39,300 copies in its first month of release. Suppose this represents 6.3% of the number of copies sold to date. How many copies have been sold to dat? Round your answer to the nearest whole number

Answer 1

Hi there! So 39,300 copies of a book were sold on debut month of release, and that represents 6.3% of all copies sold to date. To find the total amount of copies sold, we can write and solve a proportion. Set it up like this:

39,300/x = 6.3/100

We set it up like this because 39,300 is part of the total amount, and it represents 6.3% of the total book sales. Percents are parts of 100, which is why 6.3 is above 100. Let's cross multiply the values. 39,300 * 100 is 3,930,000. 6.3 * x is 6.3x. that makes 3,930,000 = 6.3x. Divide each side by 6.3 to isolate the x. 6.3x/6.3 cancels out. 3,930,000/6.3 is 623,809.5238 or 623,810 when rounded to the nearest whole number. There. The total amount of copies sold to date is about 623,810.