SOLUTION: Every basketball season Phill competes in a free throw contest. This year Phill was successful at .75 of his free throws. If he succeeded at 12 of his free throws did he attempt?

Question 70029: Every basketball season Phill competes in a free throw contest. This year Phill was successful at .75 of his free throws. If he succeeded at 12 of his free throws did he attempt?
Thank you!
Answer by bucky(2189) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Presume that the number of shots that Phill took is represented by S
If he made 0.75 of them (75% or 3 out of every 4) then 0.75 times S equals the 12 shots
that he made.
So you can write the equation:
0.75*S = 12
Solve this equation by dividing both sides by 0.75

On the left side of this equation the 0.75 in the denominator cancels with the 0.75 in
the numerator. So all that remains on the left side is S. On the right side if you divide
12 by 0.75 the answer is 16. (You should be able to do this with paper and pencil, but
you can use a calculator if necessary.) So Phill took a total of 16 shots.
Check by saying that Phill was making 3 of every 4 shots he took. In the first 4 shots he
probably made 3. In his second 4 shots he made another 3. In the third 4 shots he made 3
more. And in his next 4 shots he made another 3. If you add all these up you find that
he made a total of 12 free throws in the 16 shots that he took. That seems to work.
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