At east middle school, there are 58 left-handed students and 609 right-handed students. the numbers of left- and right-handed students at west junior high are proportional to the numbers at east middle school.

Hello there!

in East middle school there are 58 left-handed students and 609 right-handed students.

You could calculate the ratio between them in the next way:

divide the biggest number by the smaller one:

x = 609/58 = 10.5.

then the proportion is 1:10.5 wich means that for every left-handed student, you have 10.5 right-handed students, but the 10.5 looks weird, we could write this ratio as 2:21 by multiplying each side by 2.

and now for every two lefthanded students, there are 21 right-handed students:

now you know that at West Junior High the proportion between left-handed students and right-handed students is proportional to the numbers at East Middle School.

this means that the ratios are equivalent, or:

if there are Y left-handed students at West Junior High, then there are X = 10.5*Y right-handed students in West Junior High.

Where X and Y are not necessarily equal than in East Middle School, just the ratios are proportional between them