On a manufacturer's assembly line, 3% of its merchandise comes off defective. If the company has 354 defective items, how many total items came off the assembly line?

3% of x = 354 3%∗ 1 100% ∗x=354 3x 100 = 354 Can you solve that for x?

this is the steps to working the problem and the answer is 54: 3% means 3 out of each 100. if you have 100 items, 3% is just 3. You need more than 100 times as many (you want 354), so x must be more than 100 * 100, right? 3% of 10.62 is less than 1, and the problem says there are 354 : - )