Problema Solution

Problem Page

The residents of a city voted on whether to raise property taxes. The ratio of yes votes to no votes was

7

to

4

. If there were

7678

total votes, how many yes votes were there?

Answer provided by our tutors

Let

x = the number of "yes" votes

y = the number of "no" votes

The ratio of yes votes to no votes was 7 to 4:

x : y = 7 : 4 cross-multiply

4x = 7y

There were 7678 total votes:

x + y = 7678

We need to solve the following system of equations:

4x = 7y

x + y = 10868

........

click here to see the system of equations solved for x and y

........

x = 6,916 "yes" votes

y = 3,952 "no" votes

There were 6,916 "yes" votes.