Question

Riverside Elementary School is holding a school-wide election to choose a school color. Five eighths of the votes were for blue, five ninths of the remaining votes were for green, and the remaining 48 votes were for red. How many votes were for blue? How many votes for green?

Answer 1

1) Write out what you know
       Blue: 5/8
       Green: 5/9 (of 3/8 because it is the remaining parts) so 5/24
       Red: 1 - (5/8 + 5/24) = 1/6
2) Find the total amount of people
       You know that 1/6 of the population is 48, so the total population is 288 (48×6)
3) Multiply the total population by the fractions to get the number of votes
       Blue: 288 × 5/8 = 180 votes
       Green: 288 × 5/24 = 60 votes

Check: 180 + 60 + 48 = 288 votes