3.7 Understanding Proportional Ratios - old

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Math Basics  >  Unit 3 Ratios and Percent  >  Lesson 3.7 Understanding Proportional Ratios

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In this lesson, we're going to learn about proportional ratios. So what does it mean for ratios to be proportional? Well, ratios are proportional if they are equivalent. If we have these stars and circles, we could say that their relationship shows that there are four stars to seven circles. And if we want to represent this ratio as a fraction, we could write four over seven. And say if we wanted to double the number of stars and circles that we have, we could say that we have eight stars to 14 circles, and as a fraction, that would be eight over 14. Well, if you'll notice, these two fractions are equivalent. Equivalent fractions mean that even though they have different numbers, they still represent the same value. So even when we double the number stars and circles, it still represents that there are four stars for every seven circles. So these ratios are proportional. Let's look at another example. Here we have a rectangle that's filled with these different boxes. One relationship that we can describe here is that there are three orange squares out of ten total squares. And if we write that ratio as a fraction, it would be three over ten. And let's say that we wanted to increase the number of squares that we have by tripling the number. So here we have nine orange squares out of 30 total squares as a fraction, that will be nine over 30. And these fractions are equivalent. So even though we have three times as many squares, the ratio still shows that there are three orange squares out of every ten squares, even when there's nine out of 30. So these ratios are proportional. So just remember that proportional ratios are equivalent. So when we represent them as fractions, they should show two fractions that are equal to each other.

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