Question

There are 78 cyclists at the park. If the ratio of cyclists to skaters is 3 to 1, how many skaters are at the park?

Answer 1

`26`

Explanation:

To solve this problem, set up a proportion. I'm going to abbreviate `"cyclists"` to `c` and `"skaters"` to `s`.

If the ratio of cyclists to skaters is 3 to 1, we can set up this proportion:

`"c"/"s" = 3/1`

They tell us that there are `78` cyclists, so we can put `78` in the `"cyclist"` section:

`78/"s" = 3/1`

The next step it to cross multiply. The ones that we're multiplying together are colored the same:

`color(blue)78/color(green)"s" = color(green)3/color(blue)1`

`78 xx 1 = 3 xx "s"`

`78 = 3s`

`26 = s`

There are `26` skaters.