you first have to know the total number of responses: 82+76+42= 200
then you set up a proportion: %/100 = part/whole (and whichever thing you’re trying to solve for will be x)
so for this problem: x/100 = 42/200 (x is what you’re solving for: you’re trying to find the percent of people that prefer strawberry ice cream out of the 200 people surveyed)
then: cross multiply
i like to start with the x first so:
200 • x = 200x
and
42 • 100 = 4200
then finally put these together to make an algebraic equation: 200x = 4200
solve from there:
4200 divided by 200 (because you want x by itself) is 21 so you’re left with:
x = 21
now remember how we used x to represent the percent out of 100 on our proportion? this means that 21% of people (out of the 200) prefer strawberry ice cream
hope this helps!
