At a company fish fry, 1/2 in attendance are employees. Employees’ spouses are 1/3 of the attendance. What is the percentage of the people in attendance who are not employees or employee's spouses? One half of X are employees. One third of X are employee's spouses. We add one half PLUS one third: 1/2 + 1/3 = 3/6 + 2/6 = 5/6 Then we subtract that fraction from one whole, or 1, to see what fraction is left. That is, we say 1 minus 5/6 which is 1 - 5/6 Now write 1 as 6/6 6/6 - 5/6 We get 1/6 So 1/6 is left. Now we need to make that into a percent by multiplying it by 100 and tacking on a "%" 1/6 × 100 1/6 × 100/1 100/6 50/3 16 2/3 % So 16 2/3 % of the people in attendance are neither employees nor employee's spouses. Now let's check: 1/2 are employees. That's 50% 1/3 are wmployee's spouses. That's 33 1/3% 15 2/3 % are neither employees nor employee's spouses. Add them up 50 % 33 1/3 % 16 2/3 % -------- 99 3/3 % And 99 3/3% = 100% Edwin