Interactive · 3 questions

Rate

A rate is a ratio in which the two terms being compared have different units.

Instead of using the "to" form for ratios (for example, 33 red marbles to 22 blue marbles), rates often use the word per.

A rate that you see every day is on a speed limit sign. In the US, the speed limit might be 6565 miles per hour. This is actually a ratio of 65 miles65\text{ miles} to 1 hour1\text{ hour}. Because the speed and time have different units (miles vs. hours), this is an example of a rate.

Here are some examples of common rates: Speed limit, interest rate, crime rate, profit rate, birth rate, death rate, etc. Maybe there's a unit of time or if you're looking at heart rate (beats per minute). Rates are everywhere in our lives, which is why they are so important to understand.

Crime rates in USA

Bpatel91 CC BY-SA 4.0

Here, we're looking at violent crime rate per 100,000 people. Say we zoom into Pennsylvania: we can see that the violent crime rate is (according to the key on the right-hand side), 243.28 to 364.92 violent crimes per 100,000 people. Because we used rates, we can compare different states using this handy map!

Russian male death rate

By LokiiT - Own work, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

In the graph above, we can see Russian mortality rates at deaths per 10,000 people. Again, using rates allows us to compare the values over the years.

Speed Limit 65 sign

By Famartin - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

You probably see this sign everyday! The speed limit is 65 mph (miles per hour). This is also called unit rates. You can also learn about the relationship between distance-rate-time in this lesson.

France fertility rate by region

By Alto13 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Marcus works as a secretary. Last week, he worked 35 hours and made 490 dollars.

Image source: By Open Clip Art Library [Public domain] via publicdomainfiles.com

Can we write the relationship between dollars and hours as a rate?

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Preparing for a math contest?

Working through past problems on one idea at a time is one of the most effective ways to prepare. These are real problems from the AMC 8 and AMC 12, the national math competitions for middle and high school students, each with a worked solution on LIVE by Po-Shen Loh.

Video · + 1 min read

(Video) What is Rate and Unit Rate

by BroandSisMathClub

Here's a video by BroandSisMathClub defining rate and unit rates and using them to solve problems.

Summary\large{\text{Summary}}

A rate is a ratio of two quantities measured in different units. A common example is miles per hour. In the video, she uses: 40 pushups5 minutes\frac{40\text{ pushups}}{5\text{ minutes}} Pushups and minutes are two different measurements so this is a rate. It's telling us that someone can do 40 pushups40\text{ pushups} per every 5 minutes5\text{ minutes}.

Rates, like ratios, can also be represented using a colon: 40 : 540\,{:}\,5.

A unit rate is a rate where the second measurement is a quantity of 11. In the example above, the unit rate would be the number of pushups done in 1 minute1\text{ minute}. This can be found dividing both the top and bottom by the denominator (or using the multiplication property. 40 pushups÷55 minutes÷5=8 pushups1 minute\frac{40\text{ pushups}\div5}{5\text{ minutes}\div5}=\frac{8\text{ pushups}}{1\text{ minute}}

Another way to find the unit rate is by using cross products which you'll learn about later.

Test Yourself

If you can read 3 books per week3\text{ books per week}, how long will it take to read 1 book1\text{ book}?

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Interactive · 1 question

Rates

A rate is a relationship between two different types of units. A rate is often represented using the word ‘per’.

Some examples of rates are miles per hour, price per item, dollars per hour, meters per second. For example, if an apple cost $4\$4 for 22 pounds, then the price of apples is $2\$2 per pound. Let’s try an example.

Sarah can travel 500500 meters in 55 minutes. What is the rate of meters per minute?

Sarah can travel 500500 meters in 55 minutes, and we are trying to calculate how many meters she can travel in a minute. 500 meters:5 minutes500 meters⋅15:5 minutes⋅15100 meters:1 minute\begin{align} 500 \text{ meters}: 5 \text{ minutes} \\ 500 \text{ meters} \cdot \dfrac{1}{5}: 5 \text{ minutes} \cdot \dfrac{1}{5} \\ 100 \text{ meters} : 1 \text{ minute} \\ \end{align}

Rate: a relationship between two units
Examples: miles per hour; cost per ounce; points per question; calories per serving

Image source: by Anusha Rahman

Now, try an example.

A test has 2525 questions for a total of 100100 points. How many points is each question worth?

Choose one answer

Type a concept, like “slope” or “photosynthesis”.

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