Off the Cuff
Can you work out the ratio of shirt types made by a factory, if you know the ratio of button types used?
Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
Problem
A long-sleeved shirt has 8 front buttons and 2 cuff buttons.
A short-sleeved shirt has 6 front buttons and no cuff buttons.
The factory which makes 'Slimboy Shirts' uses 10 times as many front buttons as cuff buttons.
What is the ratio of long-sleeved shirts to short-sleeved shirts produced by the factory?
If you liked this problem, here is an NRICH task which challenges you to use similar mathematical ideas.
Student Solutions
Answer: ratio of long-sleeved shirts to short-sleeved shirts is 1:2
Image
try 20 : 2 = (8 + 6 + 6) : (2 + 0 + 0)
= 1 long-sleeved and 2 short-sleeved