Laura ordered a set of blue and black pencils. She received 120 pencils, and 59% of them were black. About how many black pencils did Laura receive? A. 72, B. 48, C. 192, D. 120

Without doing the math, you can tell the answer is A.

50% of 120 pencils is 60 pencils. From there you just use process of elimination. It can't be B because there are over 50% black pencils. There aren't enough pencils in total for the answer to be C and not all penciled are black, so it can't possibly be D. That leaves us with A which is quite close to 50%.

Another method would be multiplying 120 by 60% (round 59%), which equals 72 pencils (A)

59% of the 120 pencils are black.

59% =.59

.59 * 120 = 70.8 pencils

Closest option is A) 72 pencils