Final answer:
Laura mixes 3 cups of blue paint with each cup of red paint to maintain a 3:1 ratio for her purple paint. For each cup of blue paint, she should add 1 cup of red paint. The unit price per cup of blue paint is $8.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ratio of the number of cups of blue paint to the number of cups of red paint that Laura mixes for a shade of purple paint is 3:1. This means for every batch of purple paint she makes, Laura uses 3 cups of blue paint for each cup of red paint.
For Part A, the correct sentence describing the number of blue paint cups Laura mixes with each cup of red paint is: Laura mixes 3 cups of blue paint with each cup of red paint.
For Part B, to maintain the 3:1 ratio, Laura would need to add 1 cup of red paint to every 3 cups of blue paint. This is because the ratio describes how many parts of each color are used and to keep the desired shade of purple, the 3 blue to 1 red proportion must be observed.
For Part C, to calculate the unit price per cup of blue paint, if Laura purchased 6 cups for $48, you would divide the total cost by the number of cups. That is $48 / 6 cups = $8 per cup.