Question

Two jars contain sweets. Jar X has red and white sweets in the ratio 1:5, and jar Y has red and white sweets in the ratio 1:12. Two jars are then mixed together. Find the smallest number of sweets that could have been in each jar if the red and white sweets are now in these ratios
a. 1:7 b. 1:8 c. 1:9

Answer 1

Answer:

Solving Proportion Problems

Suppose a collection of

N

objects are of two types, X and Y, so that the ratio of the number of type X objects to the number of type Y objects is

m

:

n

.

The we can let the a variable, say

u

,

whose value is a counting number, stand for the unit of the proportion ad use the equation

m

u

+

n

u

=

N

to describe the collection. The equation states that there are

m

u

objects of Type X and

n

u

objects of Type Y, so that the ratio of the number of X to the number of Y is

m

u

:

n

u

=

m

:

n

,

and that the total number of objects is

N

,

as required.