A certain shade of green paint is made of 6 quarts of blue paint for every 5 quarts of yellow paint. If you only have 1 quart of blue paint, how much yellow paint should you use to make the same shade of green paint?

Question

Start by setting up a table that could be used to find the amount of yellow paint you need for every 1 quart of blue paint.
Blue Paint (qt) Yellow Paint (qt)

1

?

6

5
Nice!
You’re trying to find the amount of yellow paint you would need for every 1 quart of blue paint. What do you need to divide 6 quarts of blue paint by to find 1 quart of blue paint?
÷
6
Blue Paint (qt) Yellow Paint (qt)
6 5
1 ?
Good work!
You need to divide 6 quarts of blue paint by 6 to find 1 quart of blue paint. To keep the ratio the same, you also need to divide 5 quarts of yellow paint by 6. What is 5 ÷ 6?
÷ 6
÷ 6
Blue Paint (qt) Yellow Paint (qt)
6 5
1
5
6
You got it!
How many quarts of yellow paint are needed for every 1 quart of blue paint, to make the same shade of green paint?
÷ 6
÷ 6
Blue Paint (qt) Yellow Paint (qt)
6 5
1
6
5
​

quarts of yellow paint are needed for every 1 quart of blue paint.

Answer 1

To maintain the same ratio of blue to yellow paint when you have only 1 quart of blue paint, you need to calculate the corresponding amount of yellow paint.

The original ratio is:

• 6 quarts of blue paint : 5 quarts of yellow paint

To find out how much yellow paint corresponds to 1 quart of blue paint, you divide both quantities by 6:

• Blue Paint (qt): 6 → 1 (divide by 6)
• Yellow Paint (qt): 5 → 5/6 (divide by 6)

So, you calculate:

\[ 5 \div 6 = \frac{5}{6} \text{ quarts of yellow paint} \]

In your table format:

\[ \begin{array}{|c|c|} \hline \text{Blue Paint (qt)} & \text{Yellow Paint (qt)} \ \hline 6 & 5 \ 1 & \frac{5}{6} \ \hline \end{array} \]

Thus, you need \( \frac{5}{6} \) quarts of yellow paint for every 1 quart of blue paint to make the same shade of green paint.