Final answer:
Stephen needs 6 sticks of butter to make 6 cakes.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find how many sticks of butter Stephen needs to make 6 cakes, we need to know how much butter is needed for each cake and then multiply it by the number of cakes.
Given that 1/4 cup of butter is needed for each cake and 1 stick of butter is 1/2 a cup, we can convert the measurement to sticks of butter. Since 1/2 a cup is equal to 2/4 or 1/2, this means that each stick of butter contains two 1/4 cup measurements. Therefore, Stephen needs 1/4 cup * 2 sticks of butter for each cake, which is equal to 1/2 a cup of butter for each cake.
Now we can calculate the total amount of butter needed. Since there are 6 cakes, we multiply the amount needed for each cake (1/2 a cup of butter) by the number of cakes (6), giving us 1/2 a cup * 6 cakes = 3 cups of butter.
So, Stephen needs 3 cups of butter to make 6 cakes. Since each stick of butter is equal to 1/2 a cup, he would need 6 sticks of butter to make 6 cakes.