Question

A recipe for pastry has flour and butter mixed in the ratio 24 : 8. If Fiona follows the recipe and uses 3 cups of flour, how many cups of butter should she use?

Answer 1

Fiona should use 1 cup of butter

Explanation:

If the ratio of flour to butter is 24:8, it means that for every 24 parts of flour, there are 8 parts of butter. We can simplify this ratio by dividing both the numerator and denominator by the greatest common factor, which is 8 in this case:

24/8 : 8/8

3 : 1

This means that for every 3 parts of flour, there is 1 part of butter.

If Fiona uses 3 cups of flour, then the amount of butter she needs can be found by multiplying the amount of flour by the ratio of butter to flour:

3 cups of flour x 1/3 cups of butter per cup of flour = 1 cup of butter

Therefore, Fiona should use 1 cup of butter.