Use Ratios to Work Out Unequal Sharing

When we share a box of apples and give the same number to Ann as to Bill, they will each get the same number.

When we share a box of apples and say "for every two that Ann gets, Bill gets one",  Ann will get more than Bill.

 

 

Example

There are 24 apples in a box.

Ann and Bill share them out.

For every two that Ann gets, Bill gets one.

This is in the ratio 2:1

How many apples do they each get?

 

Answer

Every time Ann takes 2 apples, Bill takes 1 apple. 

That's 3 apples taken.

They need to do this 24 ÷ 3 = 8 times.

 

Or we could get this same number by adding together the numbers in the ratio 2:1 

2 + 1 = 3 which is how many shares there will be.

24 ÷ 3 = 8 so we know that one share will be 8 apples.

 

 

So we know that one share = 8 apples.

 

Ann has two shares, so she gets: 2 x 8 = 16 apples

Bill has only one share, so he gets: 1 x 8 = 8 apples

 

We can always check that we haven't made a mistake by adding up the amounts: 16 + 8 = 24 which is the correct number of apples!

 

This may look complicated, but you'll soon get the hang of it. You can look back at this page at any point by clicking on the red help button on the screen.

 

Let's go!