Math Equation Question

Question

If I started with 12 ounces of nuts and 24 ounces of raisins and I woke up with 2 ounces of nuts for every 3 ounces of raisins, is that the same? Or did I get stolen from, and if so, what and how much was stolen?

Answer 1

Aw nuts! the tl;dr of this is you need more information before you can fully answer this question.

This is a ratio problem. You have an initial ratio of nuts to raisins, in the form of 12 oz : 24 oz. You can simplify this to a smaller ratio by dividing each side by the same amount. In this particular case, both sides are divisible by 12, making the final ratio 1 oz nuts : 2 oz raisins. You fall asleep with a total of 36 oz of nuts and raisins.

You now woke up with 2 oz of nuts to every 3 oz of raisins. The ratio is different than when you fell asleep, so something definitely has changed. Unfortunately, since you are too groggy to count all of your nuts and raisins, there is no way to tell what actually happened. Maybe the raisin fairy dropped off some raisins while you were sleeping, giving you more raisins for every nut you have. Or the pocket gremlins stole some nuts while you were in dreamland, giving you less nuts for every raisin you have.

Either way, I would suggest you count your nuts and raisins before jumping to conclusions.