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Monday, September 18, 2006

Ratios

An 11+ child will meet ratios during lessons and doing papers. Ratios are usually expressed in Lowest Terms. A Ratio of 16:8 is usually written as 2:1.

Ratios express a relationship between one set of figures and another. It is also rather important that the relationship between the ratios is real - otherwise the result would be meaningless.

In real life we look at one crucial ratio very often. This is our `Quick’ or `Acid’ test. We look at our current assets and our current liabilities. For ten year old children current assets might include: savings, money dad owes and the money big sister owes. Current liabilities could possibly include the loan from mum because dad had not paid back the money he had borrowed.

The assets of your ten year old could be £75. The liabilities could be £25. The current ratio is 75:25 or 3:1. This means that your ten year old is liquid! Long may that last!

A simple 11+ question could be: `You have a ratio in a classroom of two adults to 18 children. How many children does each adult have to look after?’

A more complex question could be: The ratio of computers to children in one class is 15:20. Is this a better ratio than 40:20?

Anyway, forget the ratio, how do I write a fraction in lowest terms?




Answers to the blog of the 19th: One minute to the hour and it was not tethered.)

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