on taking delivery of a consignment of eggs the market stall owner was furious to find that several were cracked. in fact, on counting them up in order to assess the damage he found that 72 were cracked, which was 12 per cent of the total consignment. how many eggs in total were in the consignment?

Let's solve the problem step-by-step.

Problem Summary

• Number of cracked eggs = 72
• Cracked eggs represent 12% of the total consignment
• Find the total number of eggs in the consignment

Solution

Let the total number of eggs be xxx. Given that 12% of the total eggs are cracked:

12%×x=7212%\times x=7212%×x=72

Convert 12% to decimal:

0.12×x=720.12\times x=720.12×x=72

Solve for xxx:

x=720.12=600x=\frac{72}{0.12}=600x=0.1272​=600

Final Answer

The total number of eggs in the consignment is 600.