Question

A catering company’s recipe for salad uses a ratio of 2 cups of dressing to 12 cups of vegetables. (a) Mrs. Roberts simplified this ratio to 2:6. Explain/show how you know she is incorrect. Can you tell where she might have made a mistake while simplifying?

Answer 1

The ratio should be 1:6 seeing that every 1 cup of salad dressing there are 6 cups of vegetables

Answer 2

A catering company’s recipe for salad uses a ratio of 2 cups of dressing to 12 cups of vegetables. (a) Mrs. Roberts simplified this ratio to 2:6. Explain/show how you know she is incorrect. Can you tell where she might have made a mistake while simplifying?

Solution:

So, A catering company’s recipe for salad uses a ratio of 2 cups of dressing to 12 cups of vegetables.

Ratio of dressing:vegetables=2:12.

Let us divide 2 and 12 by 2

Ratio of dressing: vegetables= $\frac{2}{2}$ : $\frac{12}{2}$

So, finally we get ratio=1:6 and not 2:6. The mistake is in this step while simplifying.

So, Simplified Ratio of dressing:vegetables=1:6.