Question

What is the ratio of the two quantities?

4 seconds to 2 min

Answer 1

A ratio is simply the relationship has with another quantity. Most of the times ratios are written in the form A : B. Notice the colon in the middle? Another way, and often confusing to students new to ratios, is write them just like you would with a fraction:
`(A)/(B)`

In this case we have four seconds to 2 minutes. We can write down both ways and shown earlier.

Typical ratio format: 4 seconds : 2 minutes

Fraction like:
`(4 seconds)/(2 minutes)`

Answer 2

1 : 30

Explanation:

4 seconds : 2 min

however we know that 1 min has 60 seconds. Hence 2 min will have 2 x 60 = 120 seconds

Therefore we can substitute 2 min with 120 seconds

4 seconds : 2 min

4 seconds : 120 seconds (simplify by dividing both sides by 4)

4/4 : 120/4

1 : 30