Question

A bird park has black and white birds in the ratio of 8 to 2 as shown below:

What is an equivalent ratio for black birds to white birds? Explain how you arrived at your answer in complete sentences.

Answer 1

4:1

Explanation:

So, although the ratio 8:2 is technically correct, it is not in its simplest form. To get it into its simplest form you need to find the largest multiplying factor that is the same for both numbers. In this case, 2 is the largest factor because it goes into both 2 and 8. Now, you need to divide the entire ratio by 2 the reach the simplest form, so 8 divided by 2 equals 4, and 2 divided by 2 equals 1. This gives us our final ratio of 4:1.