If 1 TV wall costs 1/3 of a fireman's yearly pay, app. how much do you think it would cost now? (let's say a fireman makes about $40,000 yearly...

The cost of the TV is expressed as ratio of the yearly pay
of the  fire man in the problem.

It means whatever the
amount the fire man gets  , we have to multiplly that amount by 1/3  and the result is
the cost of the TV.

We can also arrive at the cost of the
TV by dividing the yearly pay of the fireman by
3.

Given yearly pay of the fireman =
$40000.

The give ratio of TV  as fireman's yearly pay =
1/3.

Therefore the cost of TV =  $40000*1/3 =
$13333*33.

Hope this helps.