well...this is a proportion problwm. for every 16 cups I have 1 gallon, so I can write that as:
16 cups
-----------
1 gallon
this value will be proportional to 1/4 a gallon equal "so many" cups. let's equal the unknown about of cups to x.
16 cups______ x cups
-----------.... = ..... ----------
1 gallon _____ 1/4 gallons
I can cross multiply to find x.
1 gallon • x cups = 16 cups • 1/4 gallons
16 times 1/4 is the same as 16/4, which equals 4.
1 gallon • x cups = 4 cups gallons
divide both sides by gallons
x cups = 4 cups
so! 1/4 of a gallon equals 4 cups.
