SOLUTION: Biologists want to know how many fish are in a certain lake. On January 1, they removed 500 fish from the lake and tagged them. On February 1, they returned to the lake and collec

Algebra ->  Customizable Word Problem Solvers  -> Mixtures -> SOLUTION: Biologists want to know how many fish are in a certain lake. On January 1, they removed 500 fish from the lake and tagged them. On February 1, they returned to the lake and collec      Log On

Ad: Over 600 Algebra Word Problems at edhelper.com


    

Question 1086458: Biologists want to know how many fish are in a certain lake. On January 1, they removed 500 fish from the lake and tagged them. On February 1, they returned to the lake and collected a random sample of 400 fish, of which eight had been previously tagged. Based on this experiment, approximately how many fish are in the lake?
If you can help me se this up then i could solve it.
Thank you so much!
Found 2 solutions by josgarithmetic, ikleyn:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
p, population of fish

8%2F400=500%2Fp

400%2F8=p%2F500

50=p%2F500

p=50%2A500

p=25000

Answer by ikleyn(52786) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
p%2F500 = 400%2F8,

p = %28400%2A500%29%2F8 = 50*500 = 25000.


See the lesson
    - Using proportions to estimate the number of fish in a lake
in this site.

The answer by "josgarithmetic was WRONG until he saw my correct solution; then he corrected his answer.