Out of the 32 students in Mr. Martin's class, 18 are boys. If this ratio is proportional to the ratio of students in the school and the number of boys in the school, which of the following proportions would best be used to find the number of students in the school? It is given that there are 468 boys in the school.

A.18/32 = s/468
B. 32/18 = s/468
C. 468/32 = s/18
D. 32/2 = 18/468

1 answer

To find the number of students in the school using the ratio of boys in Mr. Martin's class, we can set up a proportion based on the given information.

We know:

  • In Mr. Martin's class, there are 18 boys and 32 students total.
  • In the school, there are 468 boys, and we need to find the total number of students in the school (let's denote this total as \( s \)).

The ratio of boys to total students in Mr. Martin's class can be expressed as: \[ \frac{18}{32} \]

The ratio of boys to total students in the school is: \[ \frac{468}{s} \]

Since these ratios are proportional, we can set them equal to each other: \[ \frac{18}{32} = \frac{468}{s} \]

This matches option A: A. \( \frac{18}{32} = \frac{s}{468} \)

However, we notice that the variables \( s \) and the arrangement in option A need to be switched around to fit our ratio.

Thus, if we rearranged that to match our needs: \[ \frac{18}{32} = \frac{468}{s} \] would be equivalent to: \[ \frac{18}{32} = \frac{s}{468} \]

Therefore, option A correctly represents the proportion needed to find \( s \): A. \( \frac{18}{32} = \frac{s}{468} \)