Final answer:
A "fourth" or a "quarter" of something is equivalent to 25%. It is conceptualized by dividing a whole into four equal parts; each part is 25% of the whole, such as one-quarter of a dollar is 25 cents.
Step-by-step explanation:
When considering what a "fourth" or a "quarter" of something is, we are dealing with fractions and percentages. A quarter signifies one out of four equal parts of a whole. To determine the percentage that a quarter represents, we can use the concept that a whole is equivalent to 100%. If we divide something into four equal parts, each part is 1/4 or 0.25 of the whole. To express this as a percentage, we multiply by 100.
Therefore, a quarter of something is:
For example, if we think about money, four quarters make up a dollar. Each quarter is worth 25 cents, which is 25% of a dollar. Similarly, in a classroom of 30 students, if we're looking at one-quarter of the students, that would be 7.5 students (which in practical terms would round to either 7 or 8 students), and that represents 25% of the class population since 7.5 divided by 30 equals 0.25, which is 25% when multiplied by 100.