Problem 2 · 2017 AMC 8
Easy
Fractions, Decimals & Percents
percent-multiplierproportion
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Answer: E — 120 votes.
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Hint 1 of 2
The pie chart tells you Brenda's slice is 30%. So 36 votes is 30% of everything — the question is really "36 is 30% of what?"
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Hint 2 of 2
Use a unit-percent anchor: find what 10% is, then the whole is just ten of those. It sidesteps division by an awkward decimal.
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Approach: anchor on 10%, then scale up
- From the chart, Brenda's 36 votes = 30% of the total. The clean move: 30% = 36, so 10% = 36 ÷ 3 = 12.
- The whole is 100% = ten of those tenths: 10 × 12 = 120 votes.
- Why this transfers: turning a percent into its 1%- or 10%-unit first lets you scale to any target percent with simple multiplication — no decimal division.
Another way — direct division:
- 30% of the total is 36, so total = 36 ÷ 0.30 = 36 ÷ (3/10) = 36 × 10/3 = 120.
Mark:
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