Question

40% of a nurse’s time is spent dispensing medicine to patients. If 16 hours per week is spent dispending medicine, how many hours does the nurse work?

Answer 1

Given

• 40% of work week is 16 hours

Find

• hours in work week

Solution

Write the given information as an equation.

... 0.40 × (work week) = 16 hours

Divide by the factor you don't want (0.40).

... (work week) = (16/0.40) hours

... work week = 40 hours

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40% means 40/100 (forty hundredths) or 0.40 (forty hundredths). (The % symbol is a shorthand way to write /100.)