If a dish of ice cream hold 1/4 pound, how many dishes can you get from 4 and 1/2 pound carton of Dan's Ice cream?

This problem can be solved by the ratio and proportion approach. Equate the two situations in terms of number of dishes to mass of ice cream. The solution is as follows:

Let x be the number of dishes.

1 dish / 1/4 pound = x dishes / 4 + 1/2 pounds

Solving for x,

x = 18 dishes