At a banquet, the ratio of hot drinks to cold drinks was 5 to 3. A total of 400 drinks were served. How many were hot?

Since the ratio is a part to part ratio (5 to 3) just change it to a part to whole ratio, 5 hot drinks to 8 drinks total to make things easier first. Than divide 400 by 8 to see the scale factor which is 50. Finally multiply 5 times 50 to find out how much hot drinks there was total which is 250.

Ever seen this before:

5 hot drinks : 8 total drinks

x50 = x50 =

250 hot drinks : 400 total drinks