Question

On a particular Saturday, 60% of the visitors to an art museum were students. If 144 students visited the museum, how many total visitors did the art museum have that day?Please explain

Answer 1

Hello! To solve this question, we can write and solve a proportion. Because we are looking for the whole, which is the total amount of visitors on a Saturday, set the proportion up like this: 144/x = 60/100. This is because we are looking for the total amount of visitors, and we know that 144 is 60% of x number of visitors. Cross multiply the values in order to get 14,400 = 60x. Now, divide each side by 60 to isolate the "x". 14,400/60 is 240. x = 240. The art museum had 240 visitors that Saturday.

Answer 2

One strategy is to use ratios.

60% : 100% = 144 students : 240 total visitors

SCALE FACTOR: Divide 144 students by 60 percent which gives you 2.4 
Use the scale factor to multiply the missing term by the term that is matching with it.
So in this case 100% x 2.4 

ANSWER: 240 TOTAL VISITORS