In the continental United States, the ratio of states that border an ocean is 7:9. How many of the states border an ocean?

So, there are 48 states, let's divide them into 16 groups (because 7+9=16)

48/16=3

so that means there are 16 groups of 3 states.

and those groups are in a ratio of 7:9, seven to 9 groups.

I assume that the 7 refers to the states that border an ocean, then the number of states will be 7*3=21