Arestaurant is making a large amount of salad dressing. the recipe calls for 15 ounces of vinegar and 54 ounces of oil. what is the ratio of oil to vinegar in the salad dressing? (just a challenge for those non  - math geeks

Hey. Let me help you out.

Restaurant makes salad dressings, and the recipe calls for two different ingredients - oil and vinegar. We know the amount of ounces of a certain food item; however, ratio is not set, so there is no way for us to know how much of oil and vinegar to use if we want to make half of the portion, or two (any number, really).

Ratios are set with a ":" sign in the middle, which is a division symbol. We can also set up a fraction; however, ratios are not usually set like in the former example.

In order for us to set a ratio, let's put both numbers we know in this ratio.



So, now that we know our ratio, our next step is to simplify it. In order for us to simplify it, we need to reduce both numbers by finding a common factor that will work out on either side.

I will be attaching an image alongside my question in order for you to study this material.

The number we will divide both sides will be 3, since it's the greatest common factor of both numbers.



This is a simplified version of the ratio. It's the lowest in terms of simplification we can get down to, so we can consider this problem answered.

5:18 is the ratio of vinegar to oil.