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How to Combine Ratios

Ratios are used to make numerical comparisons. Ratios are commonly used when describing historic military battles. For examples, in the Battle of Thermopylae, historians record that the Greek and Boeotian soldiers were vastly outnumbered. Although the precise number is not known, historians speculate the ratio at approximately twenty to one. That is, for every Greek and Boeotian soldiers, there were twenty Persian soldiers. Another use of ratios arises when describing chance and probability. For example, the chance of winning a lottery may be described as a million to one. Combining ratios is a useful process. If you play three lotteries and want to calculate the chances of winning at least one, you will need to combine the ratios.

Instructions

    • 1

      Write down your first ratio as a fraction. If you want to determine the chances of winning a lottery or a raffle, record the chances of winning the lottery as a fraction. If those chances are described as a million to one, write 1/1,000,000.

    • 2

      Write down your second ratio as a fraction. To continue the first example, your second ratio would describe the chances of winning the raffle. If those chances are written as one to one thousand, write 1/1,000.

    • 3

      Multiply the nominator, the top number, of the first ratio with the denominator, the bottom number of the second ratio. In our example, we would multiply 1 by 1,000. Multiply the second ratio's nominator by the first ratio's denominator (1 by 1,000,000). Add the products together (1,000 + 1,000,000 = 1,001,000). The resulting sum is the numerator of the final ratio.

    • 4

      Multiply the first ratio's denominator by the second ratio's denominator (1,000,000 by 1,000). The resulting number (1,000,000,000) is the final ratio's denominator.

    • 5

      Combine the final ratio's numerator and denominator. In the above example, we conclude that the chances of winning either the raffle or the lottery are 1,001,000 to 1,000,000,000, or approximately 1 to 999.

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