Question

1. once the constitution was written and signed, it still had to be ratified, or approved, by two - thirds of the states in order to go into effect. since there were only 13 states at the time, how many states had to ratify the constitution for it to go into effect?

Explanation:

Step1: Understand the problem

We need to find two - thirds of 13 states. The formula for finding a fraction of a number is: \(\text{Result}=\text{Fraction}\times\text{Total number}\), here the fraction is \(\frac{2}{3}\) and the total number of states is 13. So we calculate \(\frac{2}{3}\times13\).

Step2: Perform the multiplication

\(\frac{2}{3}\times13=\frac{2\times13}{3}=\frac{26}{3}\approx8.67\). But since we can't have a fraction of a state, and the requirement is two - thirds of the states (we need to round up because even a fraction of a state means we need at least that many states to meet the two - thirds requirement), we get 9. (Note: Mathematically, \(\frac{2}{3}\times13 = 8\frac{2}{3}\), and since we need at least two - thirds, we need to round up to the next whole number, which is 9. If we had 8 states, \(\frac{8}{13}\approx0.615\), which is less than \(\frac{2}{3}\approx0.666\); if we have 9 states, \(\frac{9}{13}\approx0.692\), which is more than \(\frac{2}{3}\))

Answer:

9