Question

At Tower Middle School, there are 14 girls and 16 boys in Mr. Bell's class. There are 17 girls and 19 boys in Ms. Carlson's class. Which of the following best compares Mr. Bell's and Ms. Carlson's classes?

A.
They have the same ratio of girls to boys because a straight line can be drawn through the points (14,16) and (17,19) on a coordinate grid.


B.
They have the same ratio of girls to boys because a straight line can be drawn through the points (14,16), (17,19), and (0,0) on a coordinate grid.


C.
They do not have the same ratio of girls to boys because a straight line cannot be drawn through the points (14,16) and (17,19) on a coordinate grid.


D.
They do not have the same ratio of girls to boys because a straight line cannot be drawn through the points (14,16), (17,19), and (0,0) on a coordinate grid.

Answer 1

D. They do not have the same ratio of girls to boys because a straight line cannot be drawn through the points (14, 16), (17, 19), and (0, 0) on a coordinate grid.

Explanation:

In order to check if the ratio is the same, convert the ratios to (x, y) points, plot them on a graph and see if you can draw a straight line through them and the origin (0, 0). If you can, then the ratios are the same. If not, then the ratios are not the same.

After plotting (14, 16) and (17, 19) and (0, 0) on a graph (attached), you can see that a straight line will only go through any two of the points, but not all three. Therefore, the ratios are not the same.