Question

the ratio of apples to oranges in the basket 5:7. If the basket had a total of 84 apples and oranges , how many apples were in the basket

Answer 1

To solve this problem, we need to understand the concept of ratios. The ratio 5:7 means that in simplest form, there are 5 apples to 7 oranges. But, there are most likely more than this amount, just keeping the same proportion (an equivalent fraction to 5/7, multiplying the same number by both 5 and 7).

Therefore, we can set up the following equation:

5x + 7x = 84

This is because we know that the total amount of fruit is 84 pieces, and we can multiply our ratio by a certain number to get this amount.

To simplify this equation, we should combine like terms on the left side of the equation.

12x = 84

Next, we should divide both sides by 12 to get the variable x alone.

x = 7

This means that we should multiply our simplest form ratio by 7 to get the actual numbers of apples or oranges.

5(7) = 35 apples, 7(7) = 49 oranges

This means that there were 35 apples in the basket.

Hope this helps!