Eli's Dad made him a birthday cake, but forgot to buy candles. He could only find a few. But Eli was smart in math, so his Dad said "The ratio of candles to years is 3 to 5" That gave him the right number.
How old was Eli?
I am very confused on how to even begin finding the answer on this. Please help.
Please explain how 3/5=6/10
3/5 = 6/10
It looks like Dad can only find 6 candles.
2 * 3 = 6
2 * 5 = 10
3/5 = 6/10 = 9/15 = 12/20
Imagine a cake divided into 5 pieces. 3 people each eat a piece -- so they've eaten 3/5 of the cake.
But now imagine that you cut each of those 5 pieces in half so that you have 10 pieces. If each of the 3 people eat the same amount of cake, they've still eaten 3/5 or 6/10 of the cake.
Not sue why Ms Sue answered 6/10 when the question is, how old is Eli?
To solve this problem, we can set up a proportion using the information given: "The ratio of candles to years is 3 to 5". Let's represent Eli's age as x.
The proportion can be set up as:
(number of candles) / (Eli's age) = 3 / 5
We can cross-multiply the proportion to solve for Eli's age:
5 * (number of candles) = 3 * Eli's age
Now, we know that Eli's Dad found only a few candles, so let's assume the number of candles is 3. Substituting this value into the equation, we get:
5 * 3 = 3 * Eli's age
15 = 3 * Eli's age
Next, divide both sides of the equation by 3 to isolate Eli's age:
15 / 3 = Eli's age
Simplifying the division, we find:
5 = Eli's age
Therefore, Eli is 5 years old.