SOLUTION: My daughter and I can come up with the right answer to this word problem by drawing a picture graph, but cannot figure out what the equation would be. There are 38 employees tha

Algebra ->  Percentage-and-ratio-word-problems -> SOLUTION: My daughter and I can come up with the right answer to this word problem by drawing a picture graph, but cannot figure out what the equation would be. There are 38 employees tha      Log On


   

Question 16813: My daughter and I can come up with the right answer to this word problem by drawing a picture graph, but cannot figure out what the equation would be.
There are 38 employees that ride the subway to work. Two fifths of the company ride the subway to work. What is the total number of employees?
We know that 38 = 2/5 so 1/5= 19 (because 38 divided by two equals 19) so then we took 19 and multiplied it by 5 which equals 95, which is the answer given by the book, but how can she write that as an equation and solve for x being the total number of employees?
Answer by pwac(253) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
If total number of employees is represented by x
We know 2/5 of x is 38.
This can be written2x%2F5=38Here is the start of our equation.
It now has to be re-arranged to show x= something
2x%2F5=38multiply both sides by 5 to give:
2x=38*5 now divide both sides by 2 to give
x=%2838%2A5%29%2F2this is equation to find total no.of employees
Try it and see.The dot between38 and 5 means multiply
Pete