Marcella read 100 books over the school year. 60 of the books were mysteries. She said the mysteries equal 0.06 of the total books. Is she correct?

Question

Marcella read 100 books over the school year. 60 of the books were mysteries. She said the mysteries equal 0.06 of the total books. Is she correct?

Explain your thinking and describe a model that could be used to help support your explanation.

Answer 1

To determine if Marcella's statement is correct, we can set up a proportion.

Let x be the total number of books Marcella read. If 60 of the books were mysteries, then the proportion can be set up as:

60 (mysteries) = 0.06 (fraction of total books) * x

Solving for x, we get:

x = 60 / 0.06
x = 1000

Thus, Marcella read a total of 1000 books. Therefore, the mysteries do not equal 0.06 of the total books, as 60 mysteries out of 1000 books is 0.06, not 100 books.

To assist in visualizing this proportion, a model could be created using a bar graph. Marcella could draw a bar graph showing the total number of books she read (1000), with one bar representing the 60 mystery books. This visual representation would clearly show that the mysteries make up 0.06 of the total books, not 100 books.

Answer 2

Write is like a 4th grader would

Answer 3

Marcella said that the mysteries she read were 0.06 of all the books she read. She read 60 mystery books. She thought that 0.06 of the total books was 100 books. But she's wrong. If you do the math, you'll see that 60 mysteries out of 1000 total books is 0.06, not 100 books. So, her statement is not correct. You could draw a bar graph with big bars for 1000 books and a smaller bar for 60 mystery books to show this.