The ratio of football cards to baseball cards is 5:2 and the ratio of baseball cards to basketball cards is 5:1. To solve this problem, we need the baseball card side of each ratio to be equal so we need to rewrite the ratios in terms of a common number of baseball cards. (Think of this like finding the common denominator when adding fractions.) The ratio of football to baseball cards can also be written as 25:10 and the ratio of baseball cards to basketball cards as 10:2. So, the ratio of football cards to basketball cards is football:baseball, baseball:basketball or 25:10, 10:2 which reduces to 25:2.

If 77% of the town's 24,000 voters cast ballots the number of votes cast is:

(\( \frac{77}{100} \)) x 24,000 = \( \frac{1,848,000}{100} \) = 18,480

The mayor got 73% of the votes cast which is:

(\( \frac{73}{100} \)) x 18,480 = \( \frac{1,349,040}{100} \) = 13,490 votes.

The distributive property for multiplication helps in solving expressions like a(b + c). It specifies that the result of multiplying one number by the sum or difference of two numbers can be obtained by multiplying each number individually and then totaling the results: a(b + c) = ab + ac. For example, 4(10-5) = (4 x 10) - (4 x 5) = 40 - 20 = 20.

A rational number (or fraction) is represented as a ratio between two integers, a and b, and has the form \({a \over b}\) where a is the numerator and b is the denominator. An improper fraction (\({5 \over 3} \)) has a numerator with a greater absolute value than the denominator and can be converted into a mixed number (\(1 {2 \over 3} \)) which has a whole number part and a fractional part.

The commutative property states that, when adding or multiplying numbers, the order in which they're added or multiplied does not matter. For example, 3 + 4 and 4 + 3 give the same result, as do 3 x 4 and 4 x 3.