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dsmith76544
May 15, 2008, 06:08 AM
This is what I have so far: 0.2*W + 0.6*J = 0.44*x

Wilson High School has 400 students, of whom 20% are African American. The school board plans to merge Wilson High with Jefferson High. This one school will then have a student population that is 44% African American. If Jefferson currently has a student population that is 60% African American, then how many students are at Jefferson?

galactus
May 15, 2008, 06:52 AM
It would be handy to construct a graph.

Let x represent the number of students altogether at Jefferson. Then .60x are black and .40x are not black.

That means 80+.60x = the number of black students at the new school

.40x+320 = the number of students who are not black.

400+x are the total number at the new school.

Therefore, we have the equation:

.44(400+x)=80+.60x

Solve for x. That is the total number of students at the new school.