GCSE :: Ratio

jfrost@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk
@DrFrostMaths
Objectives: Understanding what is meant by ratio. Solve problems
where a value and a ratio is given. Combine ratios. Solve problems
involving changing ratios.

Last modified: 29th December 2018

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Overview
Ratio allows us to express the ‘relative size’ of different
quantities.

Lesson 1: Simplifying ratios Lesson 2: Combining or

and solving problems where
one amount or total is given.
 
“The ratio of muffins to
cupcakes in a cake sale is .
There’s 20 cakes in total. How
many muffins are there?”
splitting ratios.
 
“The ratio of red to blue
counters is and ratio of blue
to green counters . What is
the ratio of red to green
counters?”

Lesson 3: Further Ratio Problem Solving

(Advanced)
“Javier and Carmen share some money in the
ratio 5 : 6. When each are given £4 more, the
ratio of the money they have is now 6 : 7. How
much money did each initially have?”
Stand up if…

You have two colours to pick from only.

Red Blue

Stand up if you prefer (a) Red (b) Blue

Suppose the results Suppose also we were unconcerned by exact

were the following: numbers who voted for each but wanted to
express the relative size of how many voted for
Red 18 each. What ways could we do this?

Percentages: Red 60%, Blue 40%

Blue 12 Percentages are?good for indicating
proportion of some total.
Ratio: Ratio of red to blue:
3:2
? explore this on
(We’ll
the next slide…)
What is ratio?
 
“The ratio of people who chose red to
blue is .”
For each three people who chose
What specifically does this mean?
red, two chose blue.

It could be that we just had 3 red people and 2

blue. The above statement would be true!
  we had 6 red and 4 blue, then it’s still the
If
case that for each 3 red, there are 2 blue.
So

And similarly we could have 9 red and 6 blue.

This means we can times (or divide) each
 
3 : 2= 6: 4=9 : 6 part in the ratio by the same number, and
end up with an equivalent ratio.
Simplifying ratios
This suggests we can ‘simplify’ ratios in the same way as fractions.
Just like with fractions, we prefer the numbers to be as small as
possible.
a ÷  5
 Simplify the following ratios:   ?
b ÷  6
(a) ?
(b) c ÷  7
(c) ?

Quickfire Simplifying:

6:3=𝟐:𝟏
a  ? g Alice
  has £30 and Bob has
b ? £35. What is the ratio of the
c ? money Alice has to what Bob
d ? has?
e ? ?
f ?
Splitting an amount into a given ratio
 The ratio of muffins to cupcakes in a cake sale is . There’s
20 cakes in total. How many muffins are there?

Method 1: Identify what ‘1 part’ is worth Method 2: The ‘scaling’ way

In the ratio 3:1, we have “3 parts
muffin” to “1 part cupcake”.   each 3 muffins we have 1
For
cupcake. That is 4 cakes.
The given value in the
question is the 20 cakes. But we want 20 ? cakes. So we
?4 parts = 20 How many ‘parts’ does
this represent?
have 5 lots of this, giving us
muffins and
1 part = 5 ? cupcakes.
3 parts = 15
? cupcakes.
There are 15
Test Your Understanding

Method 1: Identify what ‘1 part’ is worth Method 2: The ‘scaling’ way

(The one value given is the €56, which is
the total amount Jack and Kate share. So
how many parts does this represent?)   each €5 Jack gets, Kate gets €9
For
and Lila €6. Jack and Kate totals €14.
€56 is times this.
14 parts = €56 ?
1 part = €4 Lila gets €

6 parts = €24?
Lila gets €24
When one of the quantities is given
In a death match of monkeys vs squirrels, the
monkeys outnumber the squirrels by a ratio
of 5:2. There’s 35 monkeys. How many
squirrels are there?

Method 1: Identify what ‘1 part’ is worth Method 2: The ‘scaling’ way

The one value given is the 35
monkeys. How many parts in the ratio   each 5 monkeys there are 2
For
does this represent? squirrels.

5 parts = 35 There are 35 monkeys, which is 7

? there are
times as much. Thus
1 part = 7 also 7 times as many squirrels.
?
2 parts = 14
Therefore 14 squirrels.
When the difference is given

Alice and Bob share some money in the ratio 7:4.

Alice received £12 more than Bob.
What did they receive in total?
Method 1: Identify what ‘1 part’ is worth
This time £12 represents the
3 parts = £12 DIFFERENCE in the parts.

1 part = £4
11 parts = £44 ?
We want the total amount, so
need to find the value of the
total parts.

Method 2: The ‘scaling’ way

  Alice had £7 Bob would have £4. The difference is £3 but we want
If
? by 4.
a £12 difference, so scale everything
Alice gets and Bob . Total .
Test Your Understanding
1 The ratio of cats to dogs at
Battersea Dogs & Cats home is
2:3. There are 45 animals in
total. How many cats are there?
?
18
4 The
3 Tom, Dick and Harry share some
money in the ratio 4:7:2.
Dick receives £35 more than
Harry. How much did Tom and
Dick receive in total?
?
£77
2 The ratio of Tiffin Boys students
to Tiffin Girls students is 8:9.
There’s 2700 students at Tiffin
Girls. How many at Tiffin Boys?
?
2400
  ratio of the angles in a
triangle is . Determine the
largest angle.
Sometimes you need
   to use your knowledge
Largest angle is of what the values
? should add up to. The
total angle in a triangle
is , and total
probability is 1.
Ratios to/from equations or worded descriptions

 The ratio of red balls to yellow balls is . If  The ratio of red balls to yellow balls is
the number of red balls is and the number . If the number of red balls is and the
of yellow balls , write an equation for in number of yellow balls , write an
terms of . equation for in terms of .

 
The number of red balls () is of the
 The number of red balls () is a third of
number of yellow balls () so:
the number of yellow balls () so:

? ?
Fro
  Tip: It might be helpful to say there’s
actually 3 red balls and 5 yellow balls.
Then it’s easier to see that 3 is of 5.

The number of yellow balls is twice the number of red balls and the
number of green balls is 4 times the number of yellow balls. Determine the
ratio of red to yellow to green balls.
 If there was 1 red ball, there would be 2 yellow balls, and therefore 8
green balls. Ratio is therefore ?
(We’d obtain the same ratio for any other starting number of red balls)
 Exercise 1 (on provided worksheet)

1  
Simplify the following ratios: 6  120 sweets are shared out into three
a 2:6 = 1:3 ? b = 2:3
10:15 ? piles, in the ratio 3:4:1. How many more
c 24:18 = 4:3 ? 56 d: 49 = 8:7 ? sweets does the biggest pile have than
the smallest? 45
?
2 Simplify the following:
a 7 The ratio of boys to girls at a birthday
b party is . If there are 35 girls, how many
boys are there?
3 What is the ratio of 28
shaded to non-shaded
?
(small) triangles? 8 The ratio of boys to girls at another party
2:6=1:3 is . There are 8 more girls than boys.
? How many boys are there?
20
4 If £30 is split between two people in ?
the ratio 3:2, what does each get? The ratio of the probability of heads to
£18, £12 9
? probability of tails on an unfair coin is .
What is the probability of heads?
5 To make orange squash I mix
concentrate and water in the ratio ?
The ratio of the angles in a quadrilateral
2:7. If I use 150ml of concentrate, 10 are . What is the smallest angle?
how much water do I use?
525ml
? ?
 Exercise 1 (on provided worksheet)

11 [JMC
  2012 Q17] There are six more 14  If , find .
girls than boys in Miss Spelling’s class
of 24 pupils. What is the ratio of girls
?
to boys in this class? 15 The ratio of red to blue to green marbles
5:3 in a bag is 3 : 10 : 4. If there are 39 red
? and blue marbles altogether, how many
12 [JMC 2000 Q9] Three –quarters of green marbles are there?
the junior members of a tennis club Solution:
? 12
are boys and the rest are girls. What
is the ratio of boys to girls among 16 [IMC 2009 Q9] Joseph’s flock has 55%
these members? more sheep than goats. What is the ratio
A B C of goats to sheep in the flock?
D E Solution: E ? Solution:
? 20:31
13 [JMO 2012 A8] An athletics club has 17 [JMC 2012 Q19] In rectangle , the ratio of
junior (i.e. boy or girl) members and to is . What is the size of ?
adult members. The ratio of girls to A B C
boys to adults is 3 : 4 : 9 and there D E
are 16 more adult members than
junior members. In total, how many Two angles add to . So 6 parts = 90  1 part
members does the club have? = . Thus
Solution: 128
?
Combining and Subdividing Ratios
One new type of question to the 2017+ GCSE
syllabus is combining two ratios into one:

 The ratio of to is . The ratio of to is . What is the

ratio ?

𝒂:𝒃: 𝒄
 
 
Tip: Give each variable a
column. To be able to combine
2:3  
the ratios into one, we need the
’s to be the same. But we know
× 4 × 44 : 5
 
  we can scale ratios!
 
×3 ×3    

 
8 : 12: 15
Further Example

 The ratio of red to blue counters is and ratio of blue

to green counters . What is the ratio of red to green
counters?

𝒓 :𝒃: 𝒈
 

3:5  

×6
  6 :? 7×5 

 
18 :30:35
 So ratio of red to green is
Test Your Understanding

24 15? 20
Subdividing a Ratio
 All studentsstudy either French or Spanish.
The ratio of boys to girls is . Of the girls, the ratio
studying French to those studying Spanish is .
What fraction of the students are girls studying
Spanish?

 The easiest method is to turn the ratios in fractions.

(a) What fraction of students are girls? 4 parts out of 7?

(b) What fraction of girls study Spanish? 1 part out of 3 
? Spanish?
(c) Therefore what fraction of the students are girls studying
of the of the students are Spanish-speaking girls.

Recall
  that we can replace
the word ‘of’ with when
? dealing with fractions of
amounts.
Test Your Understanding

 Emma and Dave shared of the money. Of this , Dave gets of it.

?
 Exercise 2 (on provided worksheet)

4 [Edexcel
  GCSE(9-1) Mock Set 3 Autumn 2017 2F
1 For
  each of the following, determine the Q24b, 2H Q6b]
ratio . Only blue vans and white vans are made in a factory.
a ? The ratio of the number of blue vans to the number
b ? of white vans is 4 : 3 For blue vans, the number of
c The ratio of boys to girls at a party is?1 : 2. small vans : the number of large vans = 3 : 5
d Of the boys, a quarter brought a present? are Work out the fraction of the number of vans made
e with them. What fraction of
boys who brought a present?
attendees ? in the factory that are blue and large. Solution:
?
2 [JMC 2006 Q23] At a holiday camp, the ratio of boys
5 to girls is and the ratio of girls to adults is . What is
[JMC 2010 Q10] At the Marldon Apple- the ratio of children to adults at the camp?
Pie-Fayre bake-off, prize money is A B C
awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the D E
?
ratio . Last year Mrs Keat and Mr Jewell
shared third prize equally. What fraction
3 of the total prize money did Mrs Keat ?
35 : 28 = 5 : 4

receive? The ratio of cats to dogs at a rescue centre is 2 : 3.

6 Of the cats, 25% are black and of the dogs, 50% are
black. What percentage of the total animals are
black?
(Note that it may have been easier to start with an actual number
of animals, say 100, and go from there)
? ?
Exercise 2
7 [Edexcel
  GCSE(9-1) Mock Set 2 Spring 2017 2F Q23,
2H Q2]
On a school trip the ratio of the number of teachers
to the number of students is 1: 15
The ratio of the number of male students to the
number of female students is 7: 5
Work out what percentage of all the people on the
trip are female students. Give your answer correct to
the nearest whole number.
?
Solution: 39%
8 [JMC 2013 Q19] A swimming club has three
categories of members: junior, senior, veteran. The
ratio of junior to senior members is and the ratio of
senior members to veterans is . Which of the
following could be the total number of members in
the swimming club?
A 30 B 35C 48
D 58 E 60
Solution: D
? black?
(on provided worksheet)
9  [Edexcel GCSE(9-1) Mock Set 3 Autumn
2017 2H Q11]
Anna and Bill share some money in the
ratio 2 : 5
Anna gets £𝐴 Bill gets £𝐵
Carl and Donna share twice as much
money as Anna and Bill share.
They share the money in the ratio 3 : 1
Carl gets £𝐶 and Donna gets £𝐷.
Find 𝐴: 𝐵: 𝐶:𝐷, giving your answer in its
simplest form.
Solution:
?
10 Shapes are black and white, and are
circles or squares.
The ratio of circles to squares is . Of the
circles, the ratio of black to white is . Of
the squares, the ratio of black to white
is .
(a) What fraction of the shapes are
?
(b) Determine the ratio of black circles
to white squares.
?
Updated Ratios after Changing Amounts

  parts = 20 counters
5
1 part = 4 counters
So initially 4 red and 20 yellow.

? of yellow counters
We’re adding red counters but the number
remains the same.
If new ratio , 2 parts = 20 counters, so 1 part = 10 counters.
So red counters added
A few new ratio skills…
Before we move on to harder problems, here are two new key skills
that will help us tackle them:

The ratio of the width to height of a TV is 16 : 9. How could we

represent all possible widths and heights of the TV, that ensures
this ratio is maintained?

 
The width and height could be 16cm and 9cm. But it could
also be any multiple of this, e.g. 32cm and 18cm. So generally,
? 9 by anything provided that
we could multiply each of 16 and
it’s the same number: let’s call this .
The width and height can be represented as and .

 If , form an equation relating and .

 Let’s look at an example:

Notice that . Therefore more ?

generally, if we could write
Updated Ratios after Changing Amounts (harder)

Jamie and Alastair share some sweets

in the ratio 7 : 5. Jamie gives 2 sweets
to Alastair. The ratio of sweets is now
13 : 11. How many sweets did each
initially have?
Trial and Error-ey but easiest method:
We could just scale each of the ratios
until we see a pair of scalings that
work…

Possible numbers of Possible numbers of sweets

sweets before: after: (using 13 : 11)
(multiples of 7 : 5)
Jamie Alastair
Jamie Alastair 13 11
7 5 26 22
14 10
?
21 15 At this stage we can see
28 20 that we could have started
35 25 with 28 and 20 sweets, and
… after the exchange, each
would have 26 and 22, as
above.
Updated Ratios after Changing Amounts (harder)

Jamie and Alastair share some sweets But what if we wanted to

in the ratio 7 : 5. Jamie gives 2 sweets use an algebraic method?
to Alastair. The ratio of sweets is now Let’s try and use the two
13 : 11. How many sweets did each new skills we have just
initially have? learnt.

 Let Jamie have sweets and Alastair have sweets.

After Jamie gives 2 sweets to Alastair, Jamie has and Alastair has .

Therefore:

If
  then
?
Cross-multiply.
Therefore Jamie had sweets and Alastair had
Test Your Understanding
Javier and Carmen share some money in the ratio 5 : 6. When each
are given £4 more, the ratio of the money they have is now 6 : 7.
How much money did each initially have?

 
Using an algebraic approach:
Amounts Javier and Carmen have before:

Amounts after:

Therefore:

Originally amounts are therefore and

Exercise 3 (on provided worksheet)

The ratio of red to blue counters is 4 The ratio of children to adults on a

1 school trip is initially 10 : 1. This
2 : 5 and there are 40 blue
counters. When I remove some red doesn’t meet government
counters the ratio is now 1 : 4. How regulations, so 5 more children and
many red counters did I remove? 5 more adults join the trip so that
16 – 10 = 6 removed the ratio is now 9 : 1. How many
? children are there now?
405
2 The ratio of green to yellow beads ?
is 4 : 5, and there are initially 27
beads. I add some yellow beads and 5 [JMO 2015 A4] My fruit basket
the ratio is now 1 : 3. How many contains apples and oranges. The
yellow beads did I add? ratio of apples to oranges in the
36 – 15 = 21 beads basket is 3 : 8. When I remove one
? apple the ratio changes to 1 : 3.
The ratio of boys to girls is 1 : 2. How many oranges are in the
3 basket?
Two boys and two girls enter the
Solution: 24
room and the ratio is now 5 : 9. ?
How many boys and girls were
there originally?
8 boys and 16 girls
?
Exercise 3
6 [JMO 2004 A8] A large pan contains a
mixture of oil and water. After 2 litres of
water are added to the original
contents of the pan, the ratio of oil to
water is . However, when 2 litres of oil
are added to the new mixture, the ratio
becomes . Find the original ratio of oil
to water in the pan.
Solution: 3:5
?
(on provided worksheet)
N [STMC Final 2007/08 Q1] Anne,
Becky and Charlotte had sums of
money in the ratio 7:6:5. One of
them gave £9 to one of the others
and this changed the ratio (in the
same order of names) to 6:5:4. The
total sum of money remained the
same; what was it?
Solution:?£810