Ratio meaning

A ratio is a way of comparing two or more quantities.
It tells us how much of one thing there is compared to another thing.
For example, we could have a ratio which tells us how many apples there are compared to how many oranges there are.
Importantly, they don’t tell us the actual amounts of each thing, just how their amounts compare to each other.

Writing ratios

If we know that we have apples and oranges, we can write the ratio of apples to oranges as .
For example, if we have 3 apples and 5 oranges, we can write the ratio of apples to oranges as .
This could also be written in any equivalent form. For example, the apples to oranges ratio could also be written as or , for example.
To find equivalent ratios, we can multiply or divide both sides of the ratio by the same number - see simplifying ratios for more details.

The ratio of pears to bananas is .
We can see that each part pear is equal to actual pears, because:
To keep the ratio the same, we need to multiply the number of bananas by as well:
Answer: there are bananas.

The ratio of boys to girls is .
We can see that each part boy is equal to actual boys, because:
To keep the ratio the same, we need to multiply the number of part girls by as well:
Answer: there are girls.

This was probably the most awkwardly worded example I’ve ever written.