Final answer:
The ratio of 4 bananas to 12 oranges simplified is 1:3, which means for every 1 banana, there are 3 oranges. When calculating items needed based on ratios, such as the number of oranges sold or strawberries needed for smoothies, you multiply the quantity needed per item by the total number of times or items.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ratio of 4 bananas to 12 oranges is a way to compare the quantity of bananas to the quantity of oranges. A ratio can be simplified by dividing both terms by their greatest common divisor. In this case, you can divide both 4 and 12 by 4, which simplifies the ratio to 1:3. This means for every banana, there are three oranges.
To put this in the context of an example, if you were to calculate the total oranges sold when one dozen oranges were sold 11 times, you would multiply 12 oranges by 11 to get 132 oranges sold in total. When thinking about a smoothie recipe, if a single smoothie requires 1 banana and you need to make 12 smoothies, you would need 12 bananas in total. This is because the ratio of bananas to smoothies is 1:1. Conversely, since 4 strawberries are needed per smoothie, you would multiply 4 strawberries by 12 smoothies to calculate that you need 48 strawberries for 12 smoothies.