Question 175241
7182 were killed in last night's frost.
this was 2 and 5/8 as many as the night before.
how many roses were killed the night before.
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let x = number of roses killed the night before.
then:
7182 = 2 and 5/8 times x.
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since 2 = 16/8, this is the same as:
7182 = 21/8 * x
multiply both sides of this equation by 8 to get:
7182 * 8 = 21 * x
divide both sides of this equation by 21 to get:
x = 7182 * 8 / 21
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this makes x = 2736 which means 2736 were killed the night before.
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go back to your original problem statement.
7182 roses were killed last night.
this is 2 and 5/8 times the number killed the night before.
the number killed the night before is 2736.
2 and 5/8 times 2736 = 2.625 times 2736 = 7182
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