Fifty people own 4,000 books. what's the ratio of people to books?

To determine the ratio (r) of people to books, simply divide the number of people (P) to the number of books (B). This is shown in the equation below.
 
                                             r = P / B 

Substituting the given values,
 
                                       r = 50 people / 4,000 books
                                           r = 1 / 80

Thus, the ratio of people to books is 1:80.

It's like discovering the answer to a puzzle. the purpose in solving an equation is to find the value or values of the variable that makes it a true statement. any value of the variable that makes the equation true is called a solution to the equation.