• Practice your interview with the new SDN AI Interview Coach. Choose a school, answer by voice or typing, and receive a personalized feedback report. Available now to all SDN members. Try the AI Interview Coach.

Math destroyer help

Started by emhl123
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

emhl123

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
"While touring Europe, Alfred finds that $1=7drachmas and 5 drachmas=3 quills. What's the ratio of dollars to quills?"

Here is how i set up the problem:
($1/7D)(5D/3Q)=$5/21Q
Therefore the ratio would be $5:21Q.
The correct answer is 21/5. Could someone explain where I went wrong? I set up the problem similar to how I would set up a stoichiometry problem for GC.
 
so you get 1 dollar = 21/5 quilos ~ 4.2 quilos. So inherently, dollar is greater than quilos. So 5/21 wouldn't make sense, since that's saying quilos (denominator) is greater than dollar. Just as how 1kg = 1000g and ratio between the two wouldn't be 1/1000. I think it helps to treat these units as variables. So divide both sides by quilos to get 1 dollar / quilos = 21/5.