Question

You have 15 stamps from Canada in your stamp collection. These stamps make up $\frac{3}{11}$of your entire collection. The rest of the stamps are from the U.S. How many stamps are in your collection? How many stamps from the U.S. do you have?

Short answer

I have 55 stamps in my collection, and I have 40 stamps from the U.S. in the collection.

Step-by-step solution

Step-1 – Given

Given that there are 15 stamps from Canada in my stamps and they make up$\frac{\text{3}}{11}$ of the total collection.

Step-2 – To determine

We have to find the total number of stamps in my collection and the number of stamps from U.S. in the collection.

Step-3 – Calculation 

Let,the total number of stamps = x.

Given that, the number of stamps from Canada = 15.

It means, the number of stamps from U.S. =$\left(x-15\right)$.

Given that, the Canada stamps makes up$\frac{\text{3}}{11}$of the total collection.

So, we can make an equation for the ratio of stamps from Canada to total stamps as:

$\begin{array}{c}\frac{15}{x}=\frac{3}{11}\\ \text{15}\times 11=3\times x\left[\text{crossmultiply}\right]\\ 165=3x\left[\text{simplify}\right]\\ \frac{165}{3}=\frac{3x}{3}\left[\text{divideeachsideby3}\right]\\ x\text{=55}\end{array}$

So, the number of stamps from U.S. = $\left(x-15\right)=\left(55-15\right)=40$.

So, I have 55 stamps in my collection and I have 40 stamps from the U.S. in the collection.