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Study Guides > Prealgebra

Introduction to Solving Proportions and their Applications

A surgeon in the operating room Calculating the correct amount of anesthesia for a surgery requires using proportions.
Dr. Roberts is an anesthesiologist. When a patient undergoes surgery, she has to calculate the right dose of anesthesia to administer to keep the patient unconscious for the duration of the surgery. The amount of anesthesia is usually proportional to the person's weight. A 125-pound person undergoing surgery for 3 hours will need a different amount of anesthesia than a 225-pound person undergoing surgery for 3 hours. Dr. Roberts must carefully calculate proportions in order to make sure her patients receive the correct amounts of anesthesia for their surgeries. In this section, you'll learn how to solve proportions and apply percents to equations including proportions.  

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this section, you will be able to:
  • Use the definition of proportion
  • Solve proportions
  • Solve applications using proportions
  • Write percent equations as proportions
  • Translate and solve percent proportions
  Before you get started in this module, try a few practice problems and review prior concepts.

Examples

  1. Simplify: [latex]\frac{\frac{1}{3}}{4}[/latex].If you missed this problem, review [link].
  2. Solve: [latex]\frac{x}{4}=20[/latex].If you missed this problem, review [link].
  3. Write as a rate: Sale rode his bike [latex]24[/latex] miles in [latex]2[/latex] hours.If you missed this problem, review [link].

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