This chapter explores ratio in mathematics. The chapter covers describing patterns using ratios, and simplifying ratios.
Above we have 12 balls. Some of these are yellow while others are yellow. We can see a pattern in the colour in the balls; One red followed by three yellow balls. Here we say that the ratio of red to yellow is 1 to 3 or;
For every red ball there three yellow balls.
Example 2
Here is another ball colour patterns we can use to observe ratio.
Above we have 15 balls some of which are red balls while others are yellow balls. Here the ratio of red to yellow is;
Suppose Andrew has 8 red balls shown below;
And John has the rest of the 12 yellow balls shown below;
Above we see that Andrew had 8 red balls and John had 12 yellow balls. Here the ratio between Andrew’s red balls to John’s yellow balls is;
We can simplify this ratio to make the values as small as possible this is especially useful when the values are very high. The highest common factor of both 8 and 12 is 4. That is both numbers can be found in the 4 times table. So we divide both numbers by 4 and get;
Ratios can be simplified or cancelled down just like fractions.
For every 2 Andrew’s balls there are 3 yellow balls for John. While Andrew’s red balls increase, John’s yellow balls will increase at a ratio of 2:3.