Tamara has a box of fruit. There are 2 strawberries for every 3 cherries in the box. If there are 12 cherries in the box how many strawberries are there?

<br />This question concerns ratios and requires proportional calculations. <br />The number of strawberries Tamara has for every cherry can be expressed in the form of a ratio. If there are 2 strawberries for every 3 cherries in the box, we can write the ratio as 2:3.<br /><br />First, consider the '2 strawberries to 3 cherries' ratio:<br /><br />This states that for every 2 strawberries, there would be 3 cherries. We have "strawberries:cherries = 2:3".<br /><br />The problem gives us that Tamara has 12 cherries now, and we want to find out how many strawberries she has in that case.<br /><br />Let's call the number of strawberries "S".<br /><br />Keeping the ratio consistent, for every 3 cherries, we expect 2 strawberries. Since she has 4 times the base ratio of cherries (4 * 3 cherries = 12 cherries), the corresponding number of strawberries has also to increase by a factor of 4.<br /><br />To show this mathematically;<br />\[\frac{S}{12} = \frac{2}{3}\].<br /><br />To solve for S, we can essentially multiply the two denominators (12 and 3) with the opposing numerator (3 and 2 respectively);<br /><br />\[{Strawberries (S)} = \frac{2}{3}*12 = \frac{24}{3}= 8\]<br /><br />So, knowing that the base ratio is preserved, Tamara should have 8 strawberries if she has 12 cherries. <br /><br />So she has **8** strawberries in her box.