First, let's find out how many women are participating in the triathlon. Since there are 27 participants in total and 24 of them are men, the number of women is:

$\text{Number of women} = \text{Total participants} - \text{Number of men} = 27 - 24 = 3$

Next, we calculate the ratio of the number of women to the total number of participants. The ratio is:

$\text{Ratio} = \frac{\text{Number of women}}{\text{Total participants}} = \frac{3}{27}$

We can simplify this ratio by dividing both numbers by their greatest common divisor (GCD), which is 3:

$\frac{3 \div 3}{27 \div 3} = \frac{1}{9}$

So, the ratio of the number of women participating to the total number of participants is:

1:9

Would you like to go over any details, or do you have any questions?

Here are 5 related questions:

1. What is the ratio of the number of men to the number of women in the triathlon?
2. If 6 more women joined the triathlon, what would be the new ratio of women to men?
3. What percentage of the participants are women?
4. If the total number of participants increased to 54, but the ratio of men to women remained the same, how many women would there be?
5. How do you calculate the GCD of two numbers?

Tip: When simplifying ratios, always look for the greatest common divisor (GCD) to reduce the numbers to their simplest form.