Metropolitan Middle School has 564 students and 24 teachers. Eastern Middle School has 623 students and 28 teachers. Which school has the lower unit rate of students per teacher?

1 Answer
Dec 9, 2016

Eastern Middle School

Explanation:

The final desired answer has the form of ratios – students/teacher. We set up the same ratio for each class, and then compare the two values.
#(564/24) and (623/28)# We can solve this numerically for a decimal answer, or “cross multiply” by the denominators to get equivalent values of students per teacher.

Direct method: 564/24 = 22.56 students/teacher 623/28 = 22.25 students/teacher

Fractional method: #(564/24) * (28/28) = (15792/672)#

and #(623/28) * (24/24) = (14952/672)#

In each case we obtain the same conclusion that the Eastern Middle School has a very slight lower unit rate.