Question

students in the 7th, 8th, and 9th grade were asked whether they prefer to write in pen or pencil.

• 40 students prefer to write in pen.
• 60 students prefer to write in pencil.

create values that could represent the number of students in the 7th, 8th, and 9th grade that responded to the survey.

Explanation:

Step1: Find total students

First, calculate the total number of students who responded. Add the number of students who prefer pen and pencil: $40 + 60 = 100$.

Step2: Distribute total into grades

Now, we need to split 100 students into three grades (7th, 8th, 9th). A simple way is to find three positive integers that sum to 100. For example, we can use 30, 30, and 40 (since $30 + 30 + 40 = 100$). Other valid distributions could be 20, 30, 50 or 25, 25, 50, etc.

Answer:

7th grade: 30, 8th grade: 30, 9th grade: 40 (or other combinations that sum to 100, like 20, 30, 50)