A recipe for stir fry calls for 6 cups of rice for every 4 cups of veggies. Suppose a restaurant is making a large batch of stir fry using 15 cups of veggies. How much rice would they need?
Start by labeling the double number line with the cups of veggies and cups of rice that the recipe calls for.
Veggies (cups)
0
Rice (cups)
0
You got it!
To find how many cups of rice they’d need for 15 cups of veggies, it can be helpful to first find the unit rate, or the amount of rice needed for 1 cup of veggies. Partition the number line to find the number of cups of rice needed for every 1 cup of veggies.
Veggies (cups)
0
4
Rice (cups)
0
6
Next, calculate the unit rate:
4 cups of veggies = 6 cups of rice
1 cup of veggies = 6/4 cups of rice
1 cup of veggies = 1.5 cups of rice
Now, use this unit rate to find out how much rice would be needed for 15 cups of veggies:
15 cups of veggies * 1.5 cups of rice per cup of veggies = 22.5 cups of rice
Therefore, the restaurant would need 22.5 cups of rice to make a large batch of stir fry using 15 cups of veggies.