problem-2.35

problem-2.35  First assign names. Then you can access the entries using the repective state abbreviations.
> names(state.area) = state.abb
> state.area['NJ']
  NJ
7836
> sum(state.area < state.area['NJ'])/50 * 100
[1] 8
> sum(state.area < state.area['NY'])/50 * 100
[1] 40