A hospital employs a total of 77 nurses and doctors. The ratio of nurses to doctors is 9:2. How many nurses are employed at the hospital? How many doctors are employed at the hospital?

1 Answer
Jan 12, 2017

14 doctors

Explanation:

A chart is the easiest way to understand this question.

color(white)(aaaaaaaa)ratioscolor(white)(aaa)actual value
nursescolor(white)(aaia)9color(white)(aaaaaaa)?
doctorscolor(white)(aaa)2color(white)(aaaaiiaa)?
Totalcolor(white)(aaaaa)11color(white)(aaaaaaa)77

Since in the row labeled "Total" to move from column 1 to column 2 we would multiply the 11 by 7, so for each of the other rows.

Multiply the 9 by 7 to get 63 nurses, and multiply the 2 by 7 to get 14 doctors. Notice the total of nurses and doctors is 63+14=77.
Therefore there are 14 doctors.