The incoming 7th grade class has a choice of French or Spanish as a language elective. there are 3 times as many Spanish classes as French classes (or 3 to 1). how many students can choose Spanish if there are 850 students?

Question

determine the proportion to use to solve this problem.

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3 Spanish classes 1 French class x classes 4 classes x students

Answer 1

To solve the problem of how many students can choose Spanish, we can set up a proportion based on the ratio of Spanish classes to French classes.

Given:

• The ratio of Spanish classes to French classes is 3:1.
• Therefore, for every 4 classes (3 Spanish + 1 French), 3 of those classes are Spanish.

Let:

• \( x \) be the number of classes.
• Total number of classes = \( 3 + 1 = 4 \).

Now, the proportion can be set up like this:

\[ \frac{3 \text{ Spanish classes}}{4 \text{ total classes}} = \frac{x \text{ Spanish students}}{850 \text{ total students}} \]

We can rewrite this proportion as:

\[ \frac{3}{4} = \frac{x}{850} \]

Now, we solve for \( x \):

1. Cross multiply:

\[ 3 \times 850 = 4 \times x \]

2. Calculate \( 3 \times 850 \):

\[ 2550 = 4x \]

3. Divide both sides by 4:

\[ x = \frac{2550}{4} = 637.5 \]

Since we can't have a fraction of a student, we round down to the nearest whole number, so approximately 637 students can choose Spanish.

Thus, the finalized answer is:

Proportion: \( \frac{3}{4} = \frac{x}{850} \) Number of students choosing Spanish: approximately 637 students.

Answer 2

How many students can choose Spanish if there are 850 students? round to the nearest whole number.

213 students can take spanish

283 students can take Spanish

425 students can take Spanish

638 students can take Spanish

Answer 3

To find out how many students can choose Spanish, we already established the ratio of Spanish classes to French classes as 3:1.

Based on this ratio:

• For every 4 students, 3 would choose Spanish and 1 would choose French.

We can calculate the number of Spanish students using the following steps:

1. Calculate the total parts in the ratio:

   • Spanish classes: 3 parts
   • French classes: 1 part
   • Total parts = 3 (Spanish) + 1 (French) = 4 parts

2. Determine how many students correspond to each part:

   • Total students = 850
   • Each part = Total students / Total parts = \( 850 / 4 = 212.5 \) (which we can round to the nearest whole number, namely 213).

3. Calculate the number of students choosing Spanish:

   • Since there are 3 parts for Spanish:
   • Students choosing Spanish = \( 3 \times 213 = 639 \).

However, since you asked to round to the nearest whole number, and the options provided are different from this result, we now check against the options given:

• 213 students can take Spanish
• 283 students can take Spanish
• 425 students can take Spanish
• 638 students can take Spanish

The closest and most appropriate answer based on our calculations would be:

638 students can take Spanish.