In wonderful primary school there were 3000 pupils. There were 250 more girls than boys in the school. How many percent of the pupils were boys? In fractions

1 answer

Let's denote the number of boys in the school as \( b \). According to the problem, the number of girls \( g \) can be expressed as:

\[ g = b + 250 \]

The total number of pupils in the school is given as 3000:

\[ b + g = 3000 \]

Substituting the expression for \( g \) from the first equation into the second equation:

\[ b + (b + 250) = 3000 \]

This simplifies to:

\[ 2b + 250 = 3000 \]

Subtracting 250 from both sides gives:

\[ 2b = 2750 \]

Dividing both sides by 2 to solve for \( b \):

\[ b = 1375 \]

Now, substituting back to find the number of girls:

\[ g = b + 250 = 1375 + 250 = 1625 \]

To find the percentage of pupils who are boys, we calculate:

\[ \text{Percentage of boys} = \frac{b}{\text{Total pupils}} \times 100 = \frac{1375}{3000} \times 100 \]

To express the fraction \( \frac{1375}{3000} \) in simplest form, we can simplify it:

Finding the greatest common divisor (GCD) of 1375 and 3000:

  • Factorizing:
    • \( 1375 = 5^2 \times 11 \)
    • \( 3000 = 3 \times 10^3 = 3 \times (2 \times 5^3) = 2^3 \times 3^1 \times 5^3 \)

The GCD is \( 5^2 = 25 \).

Now, simplifying:

\[ \frac{1375 \div 25}{3000 \div 25} = \frac{55}{120} \]

Thus, the fraction of boys in the school is \( \frac{55}{120} \).

To convert this to a percentage, we find:

\[ \frac{55}{120} \times 100 \approx 45.83% \]

So, in fraction form, the percentage of boys in the school is:

\[ \frac{55}{120} \text{ (or approximately 45.83%)} \]

Thus, the answer is:

\[ \frac{55}{120} \text{ of the pupils were boys.} \]