Question

In a recent year, 31% of all college students were enrolled part-time. If 8.6 million college students were enrolled part-time that
year, what was the total number of college students?
Round your answer to the nearest million.

Answer 1

Answer:

28 million college students.

Step-by-step explanation:

We can represent all college students as x. This means that all part-time college students are $\frac{31}{100}x$. Because all part-time college students are also equal to 8.6 million, we have $8,600,000=\frac{31}{100}x$. To find the number of total college students, or x, we have to multiply by 100/31 to get rid of the fraction on the other side:

$8,600,00\cdot\frac{100}{31}=x$

The left side of the equation evaluates as $27,741,935.5$. Because we are asked to round to the nearest million, we have to round to 28 million, which is the closest.