Question

in a first aid kit the ratio of large bandages to small bandages is 5 to 2. Based on this ratio, how many large bandages are in the kit if there are total of 60 bandages?

Answer 1

The best way to answer this question is to set up the first sentence as a ratio of large bandages to total bandages. You would write 5 large bandages to 7 total bandages to 7 total bandages.  Then you would make this equivalent to x number of large bandages to 60 total.  It would look like this 5:7 = x:60.  You could use cross products to multiply 60 by 5 to get 300.  7 times x also should equal 300.  Unfortunately, this example will not leave us with a whole number of bandages, but 300/7 is a repeating decimal or a mixed number (42 6/7 large bandages).