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ratio

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Financial, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.04 sec.

ratio

Measure of the relative size of two quantities or of two measurements (in similar units), expressed as a proportion. For example, the ratio of vowels to consonants in the alphabet is 5:21. As a fraction 5/26 of the letters are vowels. The ratio of 500 m to 2 km is 500:2,000, or in its simplest integer form 1:4 (dividing both sides of the ratio by 500).

Ratios are normally expressed as whole numbers, so 2:3.5 would become 4:7 (the ratio remains the same provided both parts of the ratio are multiplied or divided by the same number).

For example, to make up 1 litre of mauve paint, blue, red, and white paints have to be mixed in the ratio 5:2:3. The amount of each colour needed can be worked out as follows:

1 litre is the same as 1,000 ml. The ratio 5:2:3 means 5 parts blue, 2 parts red, and 3 parts white - making 10 parts altogether. 1,000 ÷ 10 = 100, so 1 part = 100 ml. The amounts needed, therefore, are

5 × 100 = 500 ml of blue paint; 2 × 100 = 200 ml of red paint; 3 × 100 = 300 ml of white paint

Alternatively, by dividing the given quantity into the ratio, the quantity for each paint can be found. For instance, the amount of blue paint = 5/10 × 1,000 = 500 ml.


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
In the matter of wills, personal qualities were subordinate to the great fundamental fact of blood; and to be determined in the distribution of your property by caprice, and not make your legacies bear a direct ratio to degrees of kinship, was a prospective disgrace that would have embittered her life.
In such cases the geometrical ratio of increase, the result of which never fails to be surprising, simply explains the extraordinarily rapid increase and wide diffusion of naturalised productions in their new homes.
Customs have been handed down by ages of repetition, but the punishment for ignoring a custom is a matter for individual treatment by a jury of the culprit's peers, and I may say that justice seldom misses fire, but seems rather to rule in inverse ratio to the ascendency of law.
 
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