Can your students solve this problem?
There are 20% more girls than boys in the senior class.
What percent of the seniors are girls?
This is from a discussion of the semantics of percent problems and why students have trouble with them, going on over at MathNotations. (Follow-up post here.) Our pre-algebra class just finished a chapter on percents, so I thought Chickenfoot might have a chance at this one. Nope! He leapt without thought to the conclusion that 60% of the class must be girls. After I explained the significance of the word “than”, he solved the follow-up problem just fine.
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Have more fun on Let’s Play Math! blog:
- Percents: Key Concepts and Connections
- Percents: The Search for 100%
- How to Solve Math Problems
- Word Problems in Russia and America
- Math Quotes III: Five out of Four People
