In a certain recipe, the ratio of the number of cups of water to the number of cups of flour must be 3:2. How many cups of flour are needed to make three mixtures of such recipe?

1 Answer
Jul 25, 2018

#6# cups of flour

Explanation:

Ratio is stated as 2 numbers (usually integers) with "to" between them.
It is usually expressed in the simplest form possible, often with 1 on one side of the ratio, depending on the information being expressed.

e.g
The ratio of fingers to bodies for humans is #10:1# (which is said "ten to one") meaning ten fingers for each 1 body.

The ratio of bodies to fingers is #1:10# (1 body for every 10 fingers).

The ratio of fingers to toes is #1:1#.
This would not normally be stated as the ratio #10:10# although it is normal to have 10 of each, and is actually the same ratio.

So #20:5# would normally be expressed as #4:1#, and #10:6# would be expressed as #5:3#.

The ratio in the question is therefore 3 cups of water for every 2 cups of flour (making 1 recipe mixture).

To make 3 mixtures of the recipe we would therefore need #3*2 = 6# cups of flour.