Before noon today the shipping department at a factory has sent 36 boxes. This is 15 percent of the total number of boxes in a special order. How many boxes are there in this orders?

2 Answers
Mar 9, 2018

See a solution process below:

Explanation:

We can reword this question as:

36 is 15 percent of what?

"Percent" or "%" means "out of 100" or "per 100", Therefore 15% can be written as #15/100#.

When dealing with percents the word "of" means "times" or "to multiply".

Finally, lets call the number of boxes we are looking for "b".

Putting this altogether we can write this equation and solve for #b# while keeping the equation balanced:

#36 = 15/100 xx b#

#color(red)(100)/color(blue)(15) xx 36 = color(red)(100)/color(blue)(15) xx 15/100 xx b#

#3600/color(blue)(15) = cancel(color(red)(100))/cancel(color(blue)(15)) xx color(blue)(cancel(color(black)(15)))/color(red)(cancel(color(black)(100))) xx b#

#240 = b#

#b = 240#

There are a total of 240 boxes in this order.

Mar 9, 2018

Total no. of boxes in the special order #color(indigo)(x = 240#

Explanation:

Let total no. of boxes in special order be “x”.

No. of boxes sent #= 15% of x = (15 / 100) * x = (3x) / 20#

Given : No. of boxes sent in the spl order = 36#

#:. (3x) / 20 = 36#

#3x = 20 * 36 = 720#

#x = cancel(720)^color(purple)(240) / cancel3 = 240#

Total no. of boxes in the special order #x = 240#

Boxes already sent #= 36#

Boxes yet to be sent #= 240 - 36 = 204#