Page 67 - Mathematics

Chapter

Four Ratios and proportions

Introduction Tanzania Institute of Education

Ratios and proportions play an important role in our everyday life. They are
used in various daily life activities such as in cooking, financial activities,
medicine prescription, construction, arts and design, and many more
applications. Understanding proportions helps us manage various daily life
activities such as balancing diets, distributing things, and planning of events.
In this chapter, you will learn about ratios and proportions. The competencies
developed will enable you to ensure equal and proportional sharing and
distribution of things among other applications.

Ratios
Sharing things is a common practice in our life. For example, people can share
portions of land, wealth, and many other things. A required portion of water, fruit
paste and sugar can result into a nice juice. Activity 4.1 introduces you with some
everyday uses of ratios.

Activity 4.1: Ratios in daily life

1. Use various resources to explore carefully the relationship that exists
between:
(i) Human body weight and height
(ii) Circumference of the neck and waist
2. Represent these facts mathematically and provide your interpretation.
3. Identify 3 more similar facts in everyday life and describe them
mathematically.

A ratio is a quantitative comparison between two or more quantities of the same Mathematics Form One
units, normally expressed as a fraction. It shows the number of times one value
contains the other. A ratio between the numbers p and q is written as :pq , which is
p
equivalent to pq÷ or q and is read as p to q. It should be noted that multiplying

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