Question

A bowl contains blueberries and strawberries. There are a total of 16 berries in the bowl. The ratio of blueberries to strawberries is 3 : 1. How many of each berry are in the bowl?

Answer 1

12 blueberries and 4 strawberries

Explanation:

We can try the guess method.

3:1 3 + 1 = 4 4 is too low. We need a sum of 16.

Multiply both numbers in the ratio by 2.

6:2 6 + 2 = 8 8 is still too low

Multiply both numbers in the ratio by 4.

12:4 12 + 4 = 16 16 is correct.

Answer: 12 blueberries and 4 strawberries