How does android:layout_weight work?

Question

When I have the following, it shows top layout with four colors has much smaller area than the bottom layout area.

According to this documentation, when you add more

Answer 1

If the orientation of linearlayout is vertical,then set layout_height as 0dp. In case of horizontal layout set layout_width as 0dp.

If we do not follow above rules,the view tends to take up space as per specified attributes and hence the alignment is not as per expectation.