Question

A bathroom tiling design requires 2 patterned tiles for every 9 plain tiles. Tilly needs 275 tiles to cover her bathroom. How many of each type should she buy?

a) 220 patterned tiles, 55 plain tiles
b) 180 patterned tiles, 95 plain tiles
c) 240 patterned tiles, 35 plain tiles
d) 200 patterned tiles, 75 plain tiles

Answer 1

Tilly should buy 50 patterned tiles and 225 plain tiles according to the ratio 2:9, with none of the options provided being correct.

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve how many patterned tiles and plain tiles Tilly should buy for her bathroom, we have to work with the ratio of patterned to plain tiles, which is 2:9. This means for every 11 tiles (2 patterned + 9 plain), the number of patterned tiles is 2 and the number of plain tiles is 9. Since Tilly needs 275 tiles in total, we will find out how many sets of 11 tiles can fit into 275 and then multiply the number of sets by 2 for the patterned tiles and by 9 for the plain tiles.

We divide 275 by 11 to find the number of sets: 275 ÷ 11 = 25 sets.
Then we calculate the number of patterned tiles: 2 × 25 = 50 patterned tiles.
Next, we find the number of plain tiles: 9 × 25 = 225 plain tiles.

Therefore, Tilly should buy 50 patterned tiles and 225 plain tiles. This means none of the options given (a, b, c, d) are correct.