Ratios, Rates, and Proportions

Math 98 Supplement 1

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Write ratios/rates as factions in simplest form.

2. Find unit rates.
3. Determine if a proportion is true.
4. Solve proportions.
5. Solve application problems with proportions.
6. Solve problems involving similar figures with proportions.

Ratios and Rates

RATIOS are used, typically, to compare two like quantities. For example, if there are 13 males
and 17 females, then the ratio of males to females is 13 to 17.

How to write a ratio.

Ratios can be written in three different ways. In the above example of 13 males to 17 females,

1. In words: 13 to 17.
2. As a fraction: .
3. Using a colon: 13 : 17

In all three cases, we read “13 to 17”.

Example 1

During one particular month, the number of sunny days in Bellingham was
4 days while the number of rainy days was 12. Write the ratio of number
(
of sunny days to number of rainy days.

4 to 12 or 4:12 or

As you can see in the above example, since you can write any ratio as a fraction, ratio can be
written in simplest form by reducing the fraction.

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 Example 2

A picture on a wall has length 32 inches and width 12 inches. Write the ratio of length to
width in simplest from.

So, the ratio is:

8 to 3 or 8:3 or

Now suppose that in example 2, the measurements were given in different units. Consider the
following example.

Example 3

A picture on a wall has length 2 feet and width 15 inches. Write the ratio of length to
width in simplest from.

Note that in order for us to compare these two measurements and to form a correct ratio,
we must have the same units for both quantities. Since 2 feet = 24 inches, length to width
ratio is given by

So, the ratio is:

8 to 5 or 8:5 or

Try this! Write each ratio in simplest form

a. 42 lbs to 63 lbs b. 2 weeks to 10 days

Answer:

a. 2 to 3 (or 2:3 or ) b. 7 to 5 ( or 7:5 or )

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RATES are used to compare two unlike quantities with different units. For example, if a car is
driven for 385 miles on 14 gallons of gas in the tank, then we can describe the comparison of
these two quantities as . Note that the numerator and the denominator have different
units. Just as ratios are simplified to lowest terms, so are rates. The rate of can be
written in simplest form as by reducing the fraction. By performing the division,
, we get what is called a unit rate. In this example since We can describe
the same rate as a unit rate of 27.5 miles per gallon. Unit rates are useful in comparing various
rates as you will see in an example given below.

Example 4

Write each rate 26 cups for 8 people as a fraction in simplest form, then give the unit rate.

Solution:

So, the rate in simplest form is

Since the unit rate is 3.25 cups per person.

Try this! Write each rate in simplest form, then give the unit rate.

a. 30 pencils for 12 people b. $27 for 6 lbs of almonds

c. 46 hours in 8 weeks d. 28,770 new jobs created in 60 months

Answer:

a. , 2.5 pencils per person b. , $4.5 per pound

c. , 5.75 hours per week d. , 479.5 jobs per month

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Proportions
Two ratios (or two rates) in fractions set equal to each other is called a proportion.

A proportion is true if those two fractions set equal are equivalent. Otherwise, we say that the
proportion is false.

Example 5

These are proportions:

a. b. c.

Note that of the three proportions above, only b is true since and are equivalent
fractions.

How do you know if a proportion is true?

A proportion of the form,

is true if In other words, given a proportion, you can check if it is true by cross-
multiplication.

To check if is a true proportion, cross multiply!

Is If yes, then it is a true proportion!

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 Example 6

Are these true proportions?

a. b. c.

a. True since
b. True since
c. False since

Try this! Determine if each of the following is a true proportion.

a. b. c.

Answer:
a. False b. True c. True

Solving proportions

Solving a proportion means to find an unknown quantity within a proportion. We can do so

using cross-multiplication. As an example, let’s solve the proportion,

In order for this proportion to be true, we must have . So,

Solving this equation by dividing both sides by 91, we find that .

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Example 7

Solve each of the following proportions.

a.

Cross-multiply!

b.

Cross-multiply!

( )

c.

Cross-multiply!

( )

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Applications

Proportions can be used to solve many application problems. Consider the following example.

Example 8

The distance between City A and City B is 270 miles. On a certain map, this distance is
scaled down to 4.5 inches. If the distance between City B and City C on the same map is 12
inches, what is the actual distance between City B and City C?

Solution:
Let be the actual distance between City B and City C in miles. Since the ratio of actual
distance to the distance on the map should be the same between any two cities, we can set
up a proportion as follows:

By cross-multiplying, we get:

So… . The actual distance between City B and City C is 720 miles.

Try this!

Suppose you want to enlarge a 4-inch by 6-inch photograph to a poster. If you want the
shorter edge of the enlarged poster to be 26 inches, how long is the longer edge of the
poster?

Answer: 39 inches

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Similar figures

Similar figures are figures whose corresponding sides are proportional. What does this mean?

For example,

Figure 1 Figure 2

Figure 1 and Figure 2 are similar figures if the corresponding sides are proportional. That is,
these are similar if the following relationship is true.

If any one of the fraction fails to equal the others, then they are not similar.

In short…
Similar figures

Not similar figures

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Example 9

Are these similar figures?

1.

Note that the ratio of the bases of these triangles is . If the other two pairs have the
same ratio, then these are similar figure. We see that (how do you know this?
Check!) And (check this too!). So…

Since corresponding sides are proportional these are similar!

2.

Note that one of the corresponding pair (left side) has the ratio .
And we also have (check!) However, (check!).

So, these two figures are not similar.

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Example 10

Given that following figures are similar, find .

Since corresponding sides are proportional we can write:

Let’s solve the first one to find As we learned earlier, we can cross multiply to get

How about this problem?

Example 11

Find

Do you see similar triangles in this diagram? There are two triangles; small one within the
larger one. Do you see them? The smaller one’s base is while the base of the larger one is
The height of the smaller triangle is 3.5 whereas the height of the larger one is 5.
We can use these two similar triangles to set up a proportion as follows.

By cross-multiplying you will get ( ) By solving this equation you will see
that

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Now let’s do some applications.

Example 12

A man 6 feet tall is standing near a street lamp that is 15 feet tall. If his shadow casted on
the ground is 10 feet long, how far away is this man standing from the lamp?

You can use similar figures to solve this problem. First, let’s draw a diagram.

In this diagram, the street lamp is being represented by the height of the larger triangle, the
height of the smaller triangle represents the 6-feet tall man. represents the distance
between the man and the street lamp. Using this diagram, we can set up a proportion like
we did in Example 11 as follows.

By cross-multiplying, we get ( ) . By solving this equation, we see that

So the man is standing 15 feet from the street lamp.

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TOPIC EXERCISES
Write each of the following ratios in lowest terms in 3 different ways.

1. 18 males to 45 females 4. 2 feet to 28 inches

2. 91 children to 52 adults 5. 4 yards to 15 feet
3. 1 pound to 12 ounces 6. 2 minutes to 36 seconds

Write each of the following rates in lowest terms and give the unit rate.

7. Type 230 words in 4 minutes. 9. 26 lbs of salt in 50 gal of water.

8. Earned $94 in 8 hours. 10. Increased 5 percent in 20 years.

Check if each of the following proportions is true.

11. 13.

12. 14.

Solve each of the following proportions. Round your answer to two decimal places if
necessary.

15. 20.

16. 21.

17. 22.

18. 23.

19. 24.

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Using proportions, solve the following. Round your answer to the nearest tenth if
necessary.

25. Carol spends 17 hours in a 2-week period practicing her culinary skills. How many
hours does she practice in 5 weeks?

26. In the year 2000, there were 8.7 deaths per 1000 residents in the United States. If
there were 281,421,906 residents in the U.S. during 2000, how many people died that
year?

27. Find the distance between Riverside and Victoria if they are 9cm apart on a map that
has a scale of 2cm : 39km.

28. Find the distance between Riverside and Fairview if they are 4 in apart on a map that
has a scale of 4 in : 52 mi.

29. A piece of cable 8.5 cm long weighs 52 grams. What will a 10-cm length of the same
cable weigh?

30. A snowstorm dumped 18 inches of snow in a 12-hour period. How many inches were
falling per hour?

31. Mary can read 22 pages in 30 minutes. How long would it take her to read a 100 page
book? Write your answer in hours and minutes and round to the nearest minute, if
needed.

32. The chance of a woman getting breast cancer in her lifetime is 1 out of 8. At this rate,
how many women in a classroom of 32 women would be expected to come down
with breast cancer in her lifetime?

33. A company’s quality control department found an average of 5 defective models for
every 1000 models that were checked. If the company produced 65,800 models in a
year, how many of them would be expected to be defective?

34. The ratio of men to women at a private college is 6 to 5. How many women students
are there if there are 5592 men?

35. To determine the number of deer in a forest, a forest ranger tags 280 and releases
them back into the forest. Later, 405 deer are caught, out of which 45 of them are
tagged. Estimate how many deer are in the forest.

36. A worker can complete the assembly of 15 cell phones in 6 hours. At this rate, how
many can the worker complete in a 40-hour work week?

37. You find that your watch gains 2 minutes in 5 hours. How much will it gain in 3
days?

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 38. A yard of fabric costs $12.99. How much will 2 feet cost?
Given that each of the following pairs of figures are similar, find x.
39. 40.

Find x. Round your answer to the nearest tenth if necessary.

41.
43.

42.

44.

45.

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Draw a picture then set up a proportion to solve each of the following problems.
46. A 40 ft flagpole casts a 25 ft shadow. Find the length of the shadow cast by a nearby
building that is 200 feet.

47. A 6 ft tall man standing next to a tree casts a 8 ft shadow. If the tree is 15 ft tall, how
long is its shadow?

48. A tower casts a shadow 7m long. A vertical stick casts a shadow 0.6 m long. If the
stick is 1.2 m high, how tall is the tower?

49. A 1 m tall globe standing next to a baby giraffe casts a 1.5 m shadow. If the baby
giraffe casts a shadow that is 6 m long then how tall is it?

50. A girl 160 cm tall stands 360 cm from a lamp post at night. Her shadow from the
light is 90 cm long. How tall is the lamp post?

51. A 6 ft tall man is standing 2 feet from a street lamp. If his shadow from the light is 10
ft, how tall is the street lamp?

52. You are standing near a street lamp which is 12 ft tall. Suppose you are 5.5 ft tall and
your shadow casted on the group is 10 ft long. How far away are you standing from
the street lamp?

53. Your friend who is 1.8 m tall is standing near a lamp post 8 m tall. If he is standing 19
m from the lamp post, how long is his shadow on the ground? Round your answer to
the nearest tenth if necessary.

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ANSWERS

1. 27.
29.
3.
31.
5.
33.
7. 35.
37.
9.
39.
11.
41.
13.
43.
15.
45.
17.
47.
19.
49.
21.
51.
23.
53.
25.

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