Question

A group of five students contains 4 boys and 1 girl. Which of the following statements is correct?

• A. The fraction of the group that is male is and the ratio of boys to girls is
• B. The fraction of the group that is female is and the ratio of girls to boys is .
• C. The fraction of the group that is male is and the ratio of girls to boys is
• D. The fraction of the group that is female is and the ratio of girls to boys is .

Answer 1

The correct option is A

The fraction of the group that is male is and the ratio of boys to girls is

A fraction is a number that represents a part of the whole or a part of the group. If we picture a cake, the denominator tells us how many slices to slice the cake and the numerator tells us how many of those slices we can have. On the other hand, a ratio is a comparison of two quantities.

In a group of five students containing 4 boys and 1 girl, the fraction of females is $\frac{1}{5}$. The fraction of males is $\frac{4}{5}$. The denominator will always be five because the whole group consists of five students.

In the example given above, the ratio of girls to boys is 1:4 and the ratio of the number of boys to the number of girls is 4:1. The ratio of girls to the total number of students is 1:5, and the ratio of boys to the total number of students is 4:5.