Hi Sir,

A class X cargo ship can hold a maximum of 18000 standard containers. A class X cargo ship can hold 20 percent more containers than a class Y cargo ship. How many more containers can a class X cargo ship hold than a class Y cargo ship?

How to resolve this question?

Thank you!

 

Translating percents in word problems can be tricky sometimes. Let’s simplify the language a bit: 18,000 is 20% more than something. What is that something, and how much less than 18,000 is it?

Let’s call the “something” above . How do you write 20% more than in math form?

Once you’ve got that, you can set it equal to 18,000 and solve.

But remember, the question isn’t asking us for , it’s asking us how many more containers a class X ship can hold than a class Y ship can hold. Class X ships hold 18,000, and class Y ships, we just figured out, hold 15,000 ships. So the answer we want is 18,000 – 15,000 = 3,000.