Question

8625 arrest 2678 robberies 865 assaults and 20 murders the population is 258,959 what is the ratio of the number of assaults to the number of robberies in simplest form show work for this problem

Answer 1

Well, the ratio of something to something else is simply the fraction featuring the two numbers. There are 865 assaults and 2678 robberies, so the ratio of assaults to robberies is

$\dfrac{865}{2678}$

To simplify the fraction in simplest form, simply consider the prime factorization of the two numbers, and cancel all common factors:

$865 = 5 \times 173$

$2678 = 2 \times 13 \times 103$

So, since the two numbers have no common factors, the ratio is already in its simplest form.