Question

At Phillips college 40% of the students are male. If there are 1200 male students, then how many total students are there?

Answer 1

.4x = 1200
x = 1200/.4

Answer 2

The answer is: 3000 total students.
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Short method:
As "Steve" showed above:
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(0.4)x = 1200 ;
¨ Divide each side by "(0.4)" ¨
¨ (0.4)x/(0.4) = 1200/(0.4) ;
¨ x = 3000
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Long explanation:
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1200 students are male.
The rest are female.
The 1200 males students comprise 40% of the student population.
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100% - 40% = 60%. So the remaining 60% of the students are female.

Female students = 60% = 40% + 20%.

Given: 40% of the students are male = 1200.
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The remaining: female students = 60% of the TOTAL STUDENTS.

60% = 40% + 20%

Since 40% = 1200;
then 20% = 1200/2 = 600;

So the number of females students =
1200 + 600 = 1800
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Now add 1800 female students to the number of 1200 male students, to get:
3000 students.
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{Just a brief check- we are given:
"40% of the students are male, and there are 1200 males students."

Does 40% of 3000 (the number of students) equal 1200?

Let's check:
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40% of 3000 =? 1200 ?
40% * 3000 =? 1200 ?
(40/100)*3000 =? 1200 ?
0.4 * 3000 =? 1200 ? YES!
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