Step 1: Find the number of bronze members
40% of the gym's members are bronze members. Therefore, we need to find 40% of 4000. We can do this either by multiplying 4000 by 0.4 (40% as a decimal) or setting up a proportion. I will demonstrate the proportion method.
percent / 100 = part / whole
40 / 100 = x / 4000
---Cross multiply and solve algebraically.
100x = 160000
x = 1600 bronze members
Step 2: Find the number of silver members
Using the same methodology as last time, we can set up and solve a proportion to find the number of silver members.
percent / 100 = part / whole
25 / 100 = y / 4000
100y = 10000
y = 1000 silver members
Step 3: Find the number of gold members
Now that we know how many bronze and silver members the gym has, we can subtract those values from the total number of members to find the number of gold members.
4000 - bronze - silver = gold
4000 - 1600 - 1000 = gold
gold = 1400 members
Answer: 1400 gold members
ALTERNATIVE METHOD OF SOLVING
Alternatively, we could have used the given percents and only used one proportion. We know percents have to add up to 100. We are given 40% and 25%, which means the remaining percent is 35%. Therefore, 35% of the members are gold members. Just as we did for the silver and bronze members above, we can set up a proportion and solve algebraically.
percent / 100 = part / whole
35 / 100 = z / 4000
100z = 140000
z = 1400 gold members
Hope this helps!