Mrs. Rodriquez has 24 students in her class. Ten of the students are boys. Jeff claims that the ratio of boys to girls in this class must be 5:12. What is Jeff’s error and how can he correct it?

Question

Jeff found the ratio of the number of boys to the total number of students. He needed to first find that there are 14 girls to get a ratio of 10:14 or 5:7.
Jeff found the ratio of the number of boys to the total number of students. He needed to first find that there are 14 girls. The ratio would be 14:10 or 7:5.
Jeff did not write the ratio in the correct order. He should have written it as 24:10.
Jeff did not write the ratio in the correct order. He should have written it as 12:5.

Answer 1

Jeff’s error lies in the incorrect calculation of the ratio and the misunderstanding of how to express it.

Mrs. Rodriquez has 24 students total, with 10 boys. This means there are 14 girls (24 - 10 = 14).

The correct ratio of boys to girls is 10:14, which can be simplified to 5:7.

Jeff claimed the ratio was 5:12, which is incorrect.

Correct Interpretation of Jeff's Error: Jeff found the ratio of the number of boys to the total number of students; he needed to first determine the number of girls. The correct ratio of boys to girls should be expressed as 10:14 (which simplifies to 5:7).

So, the appropriate selection from the provided options should be: "Jeff found the ratio of the number of boys to the total number of students. He needed to first find that there are 14 girls to get a ratio of 10:14 or 5:7."