The freshman class at a major university contains 6438 students. This was a 26% decrease from the size of the freshman class the year before. What was the size of last year's freshman class?
To find the size of last year's freshman class, we need to reverse the 26% decrease. Decreasing a value by 26% is equivalent to multiplying it by (100% - 26%) or 0.74 (since 26% is equal to 0.26).
We can set up the equation:
Last year's freshman class size = This year's freshman class size / 0.74
Plugging in the values we have:
Last year's freshman class size = 6438 / 0.74
Solving the equation will give us the size of last year's freshman class.
Let me calculate it for you.