Let's think about ratios and fractions using something fun, like pizza!

Fractions

Imagine you have one whole pizza. If you cut it into 4 equal pieces and eat 1 piece, you can say you ate 1 out of 4 pieces. We write this as the fraction ¼ ?. This tells us how much of the whole pizza you have eaten.

Ratios

Now, let's say you have 3 slices of pepperoni pizza and 2 slices of cheese pizza. To compare the number of pepperoni slices to cheese slices, you use a ratio. You write it as 3:2 (which you read as "3 to 2"). This means for every 3 slices of pepperoni pizza, there are 2 slices of cheese pizza.

Connecting Ratios and Fractions

Ratios and fractions are closely related because they both show relationships between numbers:

1. Ratios as Fractions: You can turn a ratio into a fraction. For example, the ratio 3:2 can be written as the fraction 3/2. This tells you how many times more pepperoni slices you have compared to cheese slices.
2. Fractions as Ratios: You can also think of fractions as ratios. The fraction ¼  (one slice of pizza out of four) can be seen as the ratio 1:4. This shows the relationship between the one slice you have and the total four slices.

So, both ratios and fractions help us understand parts of a whole or compare different quantities. They are just two different ways of looking at how things relate to each other.