Problem 23 · 1987 AJHSME
Stretch
Fractions, Decimals & Percents
percent-of-row-total
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Answer: D — 56%.
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Hint 1 of 2
The question is about Black population only — every other row is a distraction. The 'whole' here is the Black ROW total, not the table total.
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Hint 2 of 2
Add the four numbers in the Black row to get the denominator, then the South entry over that total is your fraction.
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Approach: the right 'whole' is the Black row total
- 'What percent of the Black population' means the base is just the Black row: 5 + 5 + 15 + 2 = 27 million. Ignore the White, Asian, and Other rows entirely.
- The South's Black population is 15, so the share is 15 ⁄ 27 ≈ 0.556 → nearest percent 56%.
- Why this transfers: in a two-way table, a percent question fixes the 'whole' to one row or one column. Read the phrasing carefully to pick the correct denominator — using the table grand total here would give a wrong, much smaller percent.
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