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How do can ratios be used to compare two numbers? Use examples to explain your thinking.

Please help! Person who explains it good so I know how to do it gets 10 points!

2007-03-12 15:33:51 · 6 answers · asked by hon3ysmil3z 2 in Education & Reference Homework Help

6 answers

Ratios is a clever name for 'division'....

As others have pointed out, you're comparing one group to another.

60 girls to 40 boys - 60:40 - or 3:2.

That's the same as writing:
60 girls / 40 boys or 60/40 - which reduces down to 3/2 if you pull 20 out of both the top and the bottom just like you would with any other fraction.

It's just another way to talk about fractions, or division so that we get some idea of how the groups (the numerator and denominator) relate to each other.

In this case, I know that there would be 3 girls for every 2 boys.

You could do the same thing with a chemical ratio - In water, Hydrogen is in a 2:1 ratio to the Oxygen.

The formula is H2O - so if I look at the number of atoms of both hydrogen and oxygen, I see 2 hydrogen and 1 oxygen - or 2:1 - 2/1...

A more complex example would be to say that, in my math class, The C students outnumber the A students 15 to 5. (There are 15 C students and 5 A students) - I can write that as 15:5, but it's more usual to reduce it just like you would a fraction: 15/5 ---> 3/1 and you just write it 3:1.

So for every 'A' student, there are 3 'C' students...

The ratio of 'C' students to 'A' students is 3:1.

The ratio of 'A' students to 'C' students is 1:3.

See?

Hope this helps!

Orion

2007-03-12 15:45:57 · answer #1 · answered by Orion 5 · 0 0

It would be helpful to find out what numbers you are trying to compare, but you might find the following helpful:

Here is a way to think about it, say you want to make lemonade, so you take 1 cup lemon juice, 16 cups water, and mix them together (We'll leave the sugar out for now).

The ratio of water to lemon juice in the mixture is 16:1, or there is 16 times more water than lemon juice.

Ratios can be treated like fractions, a ratio of 20:5 can be reduced to 4:1

I hope this helps.

2007-03-12 22:57:01 · answer #2 · answered by timmn 3 · 0 0

Ratios compare quantities. Let's say there are 100 students at our school. 60 are girls, and 40 are boys. So then, the ratio of girls to boys is 60:40, but it can be reduced down to 6:4. Six girls for every 4 boys. They can be used to describe similar triangles too, but I can't really draw you a picture.

Hope this helps :)

2007-03-12 22:38:28 · answer #3 · answered by Death of Reason 2 · 1 0

ok a ration is a fraction..... 2:1 (2 to 1) is 2 apples that jan has to every 1 frank has so if you have 4:2 and Jason has 16 apples how many does John have 16/4 =4 so 4x2 =8 apples John has 8 apples if Jason has 16.

2007-03-12 22:40:28 · answer #4 · answered by scarletfangg 2 · 0 0

I'm not sure if I'm understanding your question but see if this helps.

If there are two teachers for every thirty students, the teacher to student ratio is 2:30

2007-03-12 22:39:36 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

http://www.homeworkhelp.com

2007-03-12 22:40:27 · answer #6 · answered by Measha 3 · 0 1

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