Help with math question anyone? lol

[Konichiwabeezy]

Anyways, I suck at word problems. Help would be greatly appreciated!

For the age group 18 to 25, the fraction of people who used illicit drugs during their lifetime was 3/5 whereas the fraction who used illicit drugs during the past year was 7/20 . What fraction of this population has used illicit drugs but not during the past year?

 

[webby]

so 3/5 had used in life
7/20 used in the last year

question is who used, but NOT in the last year

3/5 is the same as 12/20 - multiplied by 4 (getting common denominator)
so 12 out of 20 used in their life
7 out of 20 used in the last year

12-7 = 5 people out of the 20 had used, but not in the last year. 5/20 or 1/4

should be right

 

[Konichiwabeezy]

Thanks, Webby!! You're the best!

 

[CivicDew]

I hate MATH!!!!!!

 

[KennyGS]

Nice job webby!

 

[Nomar06]

Webby so smart! Word problems are much easier once you break them down.

 

[webby]

yea, and removing all the added #'s that are pointless to the problem - like the age group #'s. The ages have nothing to do with the problem.