The incoming 7th grade class has choice of FRENCH or SPANISH as a language elective. There are 3 times as many Spanish classes as French classes (or 3 to 1). How many students can choose Spanish if there are 850 student? Round to the nearest whole number.
A. 213 students can take Spanish
B. 283 students can take Spanish
C. 425 students can take Spanish
D. 638 students can take Spanish
Let x be the number of French classes.
Then 3x is the number of Spanish classes.
The total number of classes is x + 3x = 4x.
If there are 850 students, then each class has 850/4x = 212.5 students.
Since we can't have a fraction of a student, we round down to 212 students per class.
The number of students that can choose Spanish is 3x * 212 = 636x.
Therefore, 636x = 850 and x = 850/636 = 1.335 ...
Since we can't have a fraction of a class, x is either 1 or 2.
If x = 1, then 636 students can choose Spanish.
If x = 2, then 636 * 2 = 1272 students can choose Spanish.
Since there are only 850 students, the answer is 636 students.
Thus, the answer is A. 213 students can take Spanish.