What does 2:3 ratio mean? What does it show?

[SHASHWAT PRATAP SING]

I know a ratio is a comparison between two quantities, but what I am not able to understand is what does 2:3 mean like what does it show, like for example if there is a situation where in a fruit basket we have 6 apples and 9 oranges so we say in the fruit basket the ratio of apple to oranges is 2:3 so what does this mean.
People say that means- for every 2 apples, there are 3 oranges, but what do you mean by this line,why do we say like this for every 2 apples, there are 3 oranges, what does this show.why are we saying this line "for every 2 apples, there are 3 oranges", I mean for what purpose are we talking about "for every 2 apples, there are 3 oranges".

 

[Hill]

Do you understand what it means if there are twice as many oranges as apples in the basket?

 

[Drakkith]

Your question is unclear. What is confusing about the statement?

 

[SHASHWAT PRATAP SING]

Your question is unclear. What is confusing about the statement?

why do we say this statement- for every 2 apples we have 3 oranges. like for what purpose, say I have for every 2 apples we have 3 oranges, now what are we going to do mix them ?cook them? what after that, just simply stating this line does not make much sense?., or we mean like does it tells that in a fruit basket if I have 2 apples then in comparison to the number of apples I have 3 oranges.

I am really sorry if this is a dumb question, its just that this question is bothering me.

 

[Drakkith]

It means that for every 2 apples there are 3 oranges. Or we could use dogs and cats instead of fruit. Or any two different kinds of objects. It's just a way of stating the ratio. What you do with the objects is unrelated to the statement.

Do these make sense:

"We have 2 cats here at the animal shelter for every 3 dogs."
"There are 3 boys for every girl here at the sports club."
"For every black jellybean in this jar there are 4 red ones."

 

[PeroK]

why do we say this statement- for every 2 apples we have 3 oranges. like for what purpose, say I have for every 2 apples we have 3 oranges, now what are we going to do mix them ?cook them?

Relative quantities are important for cooking.

 

[SHASHWAT PRATAP SING]

It means that for every 2 apples there are 3 oranges. Or we could use dogs and cats instead of fruit. Or any two different kinds of objects. It's just a way of stating the ratio. What you do with the objects is unrelated to the statement.

Do these make sense:

"We have 2 cats here at the animal shelter for every 3 dogs."
"There are 3 boys for every girl here at the sports club."
"For every black jellybean in this jar there are 4 red ones."

ok, finally I got the concept. Thanks for clearing my doubt .

 

[berkeman]

IMO, ratios of apples and oranges are pretty artificial. It's better to think in terms of something more intuitive and physical like the slope of a hill or line.

One example of a ratio is "Rise over Run", or the vertical amount you ascend up a hill for the horizontal distance traveled. So a Rise over Run of 2:3 means that you ascend 2 meters for every 3 meters you go forward. The higher that ratio, the harder the climb is.

Here is a web page with an introduction to the slope of lines and Rise over Run:

https://www.mashupmath.com/blog/finding-slope-of-a-line-rise-over-run

 

[WWGD]

This can be seen as an odds ratio, and can be transformed into the " more conventional " fraction format:
Then a:b becomes $\frac{a}{a+b}, \frac{b}{a+b}$, here in our case, $\frac{2}{5}, \frac{3}{5}$
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odds_ratio#:~:text=An odds ratio (OR) is,two events, A and B.

 

[berkeman]

Then a:b becomes $\frac{a}{a+b}, \frac{b}{a+b}$, here in our case, $\frac{2}{5}, \frac{3}{5}$

And this mathematician will now try harder to explain why that is a steeper hill to climb...