Population Densities

Date: 03/17/2002 at 20:48:49
From: Hannah 
Subject: Population densities

State        Population         Area (square miles)
Connecticut  3275000            4845
Wyoming      476000             97105

How many people would have to move from Connecticut to Wyoming to make 
the population densities the same? Explain.

I know how to get population densities, but I have no clue how to make 
them the same. Can you show me how?

Date: 03/17/2002 at 21:43:49
From: Doctor Twe
Subject: Re: Population densities

Hi Hannah - thanks for writing to Dr. Math.

The trick here is to first figure out what that equal population 
density is. 

We have a total of 3,275,000 + 476,000 = 3,751,000 people living in a 
total of 4,845 + 97,105 = 101,950 square miles. If the people were 
distributed evenly across both states, what would that population 
density be?

Then how many people would live in Connecticut and how many would live 
in Wyoming? Finally, how many would have to move to make that happen?

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, write back.

- Doctor TWE, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/