Question

Miguel's town voted on a new speed limit. Of the votes received, 16 were in favor of the new

speed limit and 16 were opposed. What percentage of the votes were in favor of the new
speed limit?
Write your answer using a percent sign (%).

Answer 1

Exactly 50% of the votes were in favor of a new speed limit.

Explanation:

We are given that 16 votes were in favor of a new speed limit and 16 votes were not. From this, we can determine the total amount of votes.

`16 + 16 = 32 \ \text{total votes}`

Then, using this information we can find the percentage of how many were in favor of the vote.

If 16 of the votes were in favor, we can divide these votes by the total votes to get a percentage.

`\displaystyle (16)/(32)=(8)/(16)=(4)/(8)=(2)/(4)=(1)/(2)=0.5`

Then, we multiply this decimal by 100 in order to convert our answer to a percentage form.

`\displaystyle 0.5 * 100 = 50\%`

Therefore, 50%, or half of the voters, were in favor of a new speed limit.