Orly uses 2 cups of raisins for every 8 cups of trail mix she makes. how many cups of trail mix will she make if she uses 12 cups of raisins?

Easy word problem. 

Set up a proportion using the ratio they provided us.

2:8 = ?:12

2/8 = x/12

Cross multiply to isolate the variable.



2*12 = 24          8*x = 8x

24 = 8x

8x/8 = 24/8

24/8 = x

x= 3

We need 3 cups of trail mix if she uses 12 raisins. 

Main idea on left, details on right