Proportions and Ratios Real World Problems

QUESTION 1 . Bob is taking his son to look at colleges. The first college they plan to visit is 150 miles from their home. In the first hour they drive at a rate of 60 mph. If they want to reach their destination in 2 ½ hours, what speed must they average for the remainder of their trip?

QUESTION 2 . A map scale designates 1” = 50 miles. If the distance between two towns on the map is 2.75 inches, how many miles must you drive to go from the first town to the second?

QUESTION 3 Callie asks her fellow sixth-grade students to name their favorite flavor of ice cream. She finds that 3 out of every 8 students prefer strawberry to vanilla. If there are 160 students, how many prefer strawberry?

QUESTION 4 The sixth grade class is selling pencils. They are putting a ratio of 2 red pencils for every 3 blue pencils in a bag. If the students have 100 red pencils, how many blue pencils do they need?

QUESTION 5 . Complete the following. a) If a car travels 100 km in 4 hours, the rate of travel is ___ km/h b) If one dozen eggs is sold for $2.40, the rate is ___ cents per egg. c) If a tap fills a 450 litre tank with water in 1 hour, the water flows at the rate of ___ litres per minute. d) If $24.00 is charged for 120 kWh of electricity consumed, the rate is ___ cents/kWh.

QUESTION 6 Alejandro and Skylar went deep-sea fishing. They discovered that 4 out of every 5 fish they caught were flounder. If they caught 36 fish, how many were flounder?  

QUESTION 7 The New Jersey Devils ratio of wins to loses to ties is: 6 : 3 : 1. a. What is the ratio of wins to total games played? b. What is the ratio of loses to total games played? c. What is the ratio of ties to total games played? d. If there have been 50 games played, how many have the Devils won, lost, and tied? e. How many games should they win, lose, and tie in an 82 game season?

QUESTION 8 In a public opinion poll, 624 people from a sample of 1,100 indicated they would vote for a specific candidate. How many votes can the candidate expect to receive from a population of 40,000?

QUESTION 9 A pump can fill a 750-gallon tank in 35 minutes. How long will it take to fill a 1000-gallon tank with this same pump?

QUESTION 10 A person who weighs 200 pounds on Earth would weigh about 32 pounds on the moon. Find the weight of a person on Earth who would weigh 15 pounds of the moon.

QUESTION 11 A crew of loggers cleared ½ acre of lumber in 4 days. How long will it take the same crew to clear 2 ¾ acres of lumber?

QUESTION 12 Because of slumping sales, a small company had to lay off some of its employees. The ratio of total employees to employees laid off is 5 to 1. Find the total number of employees if 22 are laid off.

QUESTION 13 A meteorologist reports that the ratio of snowfall in January to total snowfall during the average winter is 2 to 5. If 34 inches have fallen in January of the current year, find the predicted total snowfall for the entire winter.

QUESTION 14 A recipe calls for 2 ½ cups of flour to make 2 dozen cookies. How many cups of flour would be required to bake 15 dozen cookies?

QUESTION 15 The ratio of the cost of a tennis racket to tennis balls is 18:1. If a can of balls cost $5.35, what is the cost of the racket?

QUESTION 16 The results of a recent survey of 1500 American adults show that 525 approve of the job that President George W. Bush is doing and 975 do not approve. a. What is the ratio of those that approve to those that do not? b. If there are 199 million adults in the United States, how many approve of George W? c. If a larger survey was done, showing 5000 people approving of George W, how many were surveyed?

QUESTION 17 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holds the NBA record for the most points scored in a career, 38,387. In the first 280 games of his career, LeBron James has scored 7446 points. At this rate, how many more games will LeBron James need to play to break Abdul-Jabbar’s career record?

QUESTION 18 A Toyota Prius drove 208 miles on 5 gallons of gas. How far should it be able to go on a full, 11 gallon, tank?

QUESTION 19 A six-pack of Coke costs $2.09. At this rate, how much should 32 cans cost?

QUESTION 20 The Lakers have won 27 games and lost 17 games. At this rate, how many games should they win, in an 82 game season?