Question

Yesterday, 15 employees in an office were absent. If these absentees constitute 30% of the​ employees, what is the total number of​ employees?

Answer 1

See a solution process below:

Explanation:

We can rewrite this problem as:

15 is 30% if what?

"Percent" or "%" means "out of 100" or "per 100", Therefore 30% can be written as `30/100`.
When dealing with percents the word "of" means "times" or "to multiply".

Finally, lets call the total number of emplioyees we are looking for "e".

Putting this altogether we can write this equation and solve for `e` while keeping the equation balanced:

`15 = 30/100 xx e`

`color(red)(100)/color(blue)(30) xx 15 = color(red)(100)/color(blue)(30) xx 30/100 xx e`

`1500/color(blue)(30) = cancel(color(red)(100))/cancel(color(blue)(30)) xx color(blue)(cancel(color(black)(30)))/color(red)(cancel(color(black)(100))) xx e`

`50 = e`

There are a total of 50 employees