SOLUTION: at a school,2/5 of the students are taking chemistry, 1/3 of the remaining students are taking physics, and the rest are taking biology. no student is taking more than one science

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Question 670058: at a school,2/5 of the students are taking chemistry, 1/3 of the remaining students are taking physics, and the rest are taking biology. no student is taking more than one science class. if 66 students are taking biology, how many students are in the class?
Answer by Edwin McCravy(20054)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let the total number of students = N

>>...2/5 of the students are taking chemistry,...<<
So N are taking chemistry

1/3 of the remaining students are taking physics,
The trick here is "the remaining students".  That is NOT 
 of the total number of students!  It is only
 of the students that remain after the N
chemistry students have been subtracted from N, which is 
N - N or N.  Therefore  of N 
is N.  So the number talking physics is N.

and the rest are taking biology. 

"The rest" is found by subtracting the N taking
chemistry and the N taking physics from N:

N - (N + N) = N - N = N are taking biology 

>>...66 students are taking biology,...<<
So we set N = 66

Multiply through by 5

2N = 330
 N = 165

Edwin

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