How do you know if 2 fractions are equivalent?

The volume of gas a balloon can hold varies directly as the cube of its radius. imagine a balloon with a radius of 3 inches can hold 81 cubic inches of gas. how many cubic inches of gas must be released to reduce the radius down to 2 inches?

Need showing work for this problem 56.25 ×25.80

Me with this assignment ! i only partially understand, so explain. also it's a work sample. at the championship bike race, steve and paula were fighting for first place. steve was 175 feet ahead of paula and had only 300 feet left to go. he was very tired and was going only 9 feet per second. paula was desperate to catch up and was going 15 feet per second. who won the bike race and by how far did she/he win?