Example 1: Abbie and Ben share £120 in the ratio 2:1
Work out how much each of them get.
The first step is to work out how many equal parts there are.
The ratio is 2:1 so there are 3 (2 + 1) equal parts
We now need to work out how much each of the parts is worth
We divide the £120 between the 3 parts
£120 ÷ 3 = £40
Each part is worth £40
Now we can work out how much Abbie and Ben get
Abbie has 2 parts so she gets £80 (2 × £40)
Ben has one part which is worth £40
You may find it useful to draw a diagram for ratio questions
Abbie has 2 parts and Ben has 1 part, we could represent this as 2 boxes for Abbie and 1 box for Ben:
Each box must have the same amount in it and the total in all 3 boxes must be £120. We share £120 out evenly between the boxes (£120 ÷ 3 = £40)
We can see that Abbie gets £80 (£40 + £40) and Ben gets £40
Example 2: A, B and C share £240 in the ratio 4:3:1
Work out how much each of them get.
4 + 3 + 1 = 8
There are 8 equal parts
£240 ÷ 8 = £30
Each part is worth £30
A gets 4 × £30 = £120
B gets 3 × £30 = £90
C gets 1 × £30 = £30
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