<p>Charles and Smith are in a presidential election and Charles beats smith in a 5:2 ratio. If there were 200,000 votes, how many votes did Charles get?</p>
<p>I'm kind of an idiot when it comes to this. Would it be 125k?</p>
<p>So you divide the total votes by the number of 'pieces' so 200,000/8 then multiply by 5?</p>
<p>Or do you make it into a fraction?</p>
<p>You're on the right track.</p>
<p>You add the 2 parts of the ratio (5+2=7) and divide 200,000 by 7.
Multiply by 5.</p>
<p>NO HOMEWORK HELP POSTS ALLOWED!!!</p>
<p>And do you have a typo in the OP? Either you should be dividing by 7 and not 8 or you meant to type 5:3.</p>
<p>yea I meant 5:3. How do i delete a post? sorry It wasnt hw help Im studying for the SAT and I want to get higher than at LEAST a 600 in the math!</p>
<p>Yes that is correct. 200000 times (5/8) = 125000.</p>