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Ratios

Ratios describe how numbers change in relation to each other. For example, if I double the amount of flour in a recipe, then I will need to double all of the other ingredients as well.

Ratios in recipes

Ratios in recipes

  • A recipe says that for every 1 g of sugar, you need 5 g of flour.
    • The ratio of sugar to flour is 1 : 5.
Using ratios

Using ratios

  • If I use 10 g of sugar, how much flour will I need?
    • I used 10× as much sugar.
    • So I need 10× as much flour.
    • You must do the same calculation to both sides of the ratio.
  • 10 g of sugar needs 50 g of flour.
Another example

Another example

  • A class has 3 girls for every 2 boys.
    • Our ratio of girls to boys would be 3 : 2.
Example Question

Example Question

  • If there were 8 boys in a class, how many girls would there be?
    • You have multiplied the number of boys in the ratio by 4 to make 8 (2 × 4 = 8).
Multiply both sides by 4

Multiply both sides by 4

  • You need to multiply both sides by the same amount to keep the ratio the same.
    • You need to multiply 3 by 4 to find out how many girls there are in the class (3 × 4 = 12).
Final answer

Final answer

  • There are 12 girls and 8 boys in the class.
Jump to other topics
1

Year 5 - Number

2

Year 5 - Measurement

3

Year 5 - Geometry

4

Year 5 - Statistics

5

Year 6 - Number

6

Year 6 - Ratio & Proportion

7

Year 6 - Algebra

8

Year 6 - Measurement

9

Year 6 - Statistics

9.1

Displaying Data

9.2

Averages

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