percentage

[mgol]

Tom has 2,000 plants at his plant nursery. Of these plants, 65% are orchids and the rest are roses. After he sells some orchids and buys more roses, 45% of all the plants at his nursery are orchids. Given that Tom buys
125 roses, how many orchids does he sell

 

[Steven G]

What have you tried? If you don't tell us where you are stuck then it will be hard to find someone willing to help you. No one wants to spend time showing you something that you already know.

 

[HallsofIvy]

Tom has 2,000 plants at his plant nursery. Of these plants, 65% are orchids and the rest are roses.

So what is 65% of 2000? What is 35% of 2000? In other words, how many orchids and how many roses did he have?

After he sells some orchids and buys more roses, 45% of all the plants at his nursery are orchids. Given that Tom buys
125 roses, how many orchids does he sell

Let "x" be the number of orchids sold. How many orchids does he have now? If he bought 125 roses how many roses does he have now? How many plants all together does he have? If the orchids are 45% of that, how many orchids does he have and so how many did he sell?

 

[firemath]

Make sure you think of the first part of the problem in terms of 10s, since your variable is 2000, which is in turn easily divided by 100:

[MATH]2000/100=20[/MATH]
Therefore:

[MATH](1) percent=20[/MATH]
Now that you have a constant percent to work with, can you continue?

 

[Steven G]

What/what # means x
is means =
of means times *
percent or % means /100
? Just ignore

For example: what is 20% of 50?

Then \(\displaystyle x = \dfrac{20}{100} * 50 = 10\).

So 10 is 20% of 50