Shelley compared the number of oak trees to the number of mable trees as a part of a study. She counted 9 mable trees to every 5 oak trees. Later in the year there was bug problem and many trees died. New trees were planted to make sure there was the same amount of trees as before the bug problem. The new ratio of the number of mable trees to the number of oak trees is 3:11. After planting new trees, there were 132 oak trees. How many more mable trees were in the woodlot before the bug problem than after the bug problem? explain.

120

To find the number of maple trees before the bug problem, we need to determine the ratio of the number of maple trees to oak trees.

According to the given information, before the bug problem, Shelley counted 9 maple trees for every 5 oak trees. So, the ratio of maple trees to oak trees is 9:5.

Next, we need to find the number of maple trees after planting new trees. The new ratio of maple trees to oak trees is 3:11.

We know that after planting new trees, there were 132 oak trees. So, we can set up a proportion to find the number of maple trees:

9/5 = x/132

To solve this proportion, we can cross-multiply:

9 * 132 = 5 * x

1188 = 5x

Dividing both sides of the equation by 5:

x = 237.6

Since we can't have a fraction of a tree, we can round down to the nearest whole number, so there were 237 maple trees after planting new trees.

To find the difference in the number of maple trees before and after the bug problem, we subtract the number of maple trees after from the number of maple trees before:

237 - 9 = 228

Therefore, there were 228 more maple trees in the woodlot before the bug problem than after the bug problem.