Ratios

A ratio is a comparison of two quantities. It can be written in three different ways: using the word "to," using a colon ( : ), or as a fraction. For example, the ratio of apples to oranges can be written as "apples to oranges," "apples : oranges," or as the fraction "apples/oranges."

Ratios are used to compare the sizes of two or more quantities. For example, if you have 3 red marbles and 5 blue marbles, the ratio of red marbles to blue marbles is 3:5. This means that for every 3 red marbles, there are 5 blue marbles.

Ratios can be simplified just like fractions. For example, the ratio 6:8 can be simplified to 3:4 by dividing both numbers by their greatest common factor, which is 2 in this case.

Ratios are used in many real-life situations, such as when baking (for example, a recipe might call for a ratio of 2 cups of flour to 1 cup of sugar), in finance (for example, the debt-to-income ratio is used to determine a person's financial health), and in map scales (for example, 1 inch on a map might represent 10 miles in real life).