An artist mixes blue and yellow to make a shade of green. The ratio of blue to yellow is four to one. The color blue makes up what fraction of the mixture?
If blue to yellow is 4 to 1, then their total mixture is 5. Thus, the blue color makes up 4/5 of the mixture.
To determine the fraction of blue in the mixture, we need to calculate the ratio of blue to the total amount of color in the mixture (which is the sum of blue and yellow).
Step 1: Determine the total ratio of blue to yellow: 4:1
Step 2: Add the two parts of the ratio to find the total number of parts: 4 + 1 = 5
Step 3: Divide each part of the ratio by the total number of parts: 4/5 blue, 1/5 yellow.
Therefore, the color blue makes up 4/5 or four fifths of the mixture.