Week 327 (15th December 2023)

Santa has been busy delivering presents and has a total of 900 presents left on his sleigh.  

The presents are divided into three categories:  

Red, green, and gold.  

The ratio of red to green presents is 3:4. 

The ratio of green to gold presents is 5:2.  

How many presents of each colour does Santa have on his sleigh?  

Answer:

Red:Green        Green:Gold 

     3:4                        5:2 

To get the overall ratio we have to make the ‘green’ part of each ratio the same. So we can multiply the first by 5 and the second by 4… 

3:4 ..x5.. 15:20            5:2 ..x4.. 20:8 

Therefore, the overall ratio of all 3 colours is.. R:Gr:Go 15:20:8 

To share the 900 presents out in the ratio we first add up the ratio together.  

15+20+8 = 43 

And then divide 900 by that… 

900/43 = 20.9 

To find the actual number of presents we multiply 20.9 through the ratio… 

20.9 x 15 = 314 red 

20.9 x 20 = 419 green 

20.9 x 8 = 167 gold