Math: It's what's for Dinner!

Doing the Dishes

2008-11-05T06:31:00.000-08:00

If there are 5 plates, 6 cups, 4 knives, and 3 spoons in the sink, what is the probability that the next item picked to be washed will be a cup?

Should We Risk it?

2008-11-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

It's been four days since our dinner party, and our leftovers are still in the fridge. We can't decide if it would be a good idea to eat them, or if they've gone bad. We looked online and found that 8 people found chicken parmesan to be spoiled after four days, and 5 people found it to be just fine. Based on these results, what is the probability that our food is spoiled?

Space... So... Small!

2008-11-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

Our refrigerator is so full! We have hardly any room for more food, so we need to figure out the best way to store our leftovers. We have 9 oz. of leftovers altogether, and we have 0.5 oz, 2 oz. and 5 oz. Tupperware bins. What is the most efficient way for us to store our leftovers?

To Keep, or Not to Keep? That is the Question!

2008-11-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

After our dinner party, we realized we have some food leftover. We only want to keep the food if there is enough to make another meal out of it. First we decided to measure each type of food using a balance scale, and then we recorded our data on a chart. After looking at our results and comparing it to the amount we need, we decide whether or not we keep the food or feed it to our dog Fluffy.

We have: 5 oz of chicken, 2 oz. of ziti pasta, and 4 oz. of green beans.
We need: 3 oz of chicken, 4 oz of pasta, and 4 oz of green beans

What do we keep?

Dare to be Different

2008-11-04T13:35:00.000-08:00

Most people divide their brownies into squares, but we changed our minds about that because we like to be different. If we need 24 brownies and we currently have a 9 x 13 inch rectangle, how can we divide our brownies into triangles? Trapezoids? Rhombuses?

Brainy Brownies

2008-11-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

We need 24 brownies for our dinner party and for snacks during the week, and we can't decide how to cut up the brownies. How many even rows and how many columns can we divide our brownies into? Is there more than one way to do it?

Time After Time

2008-11-04T12:50:00.000-08:00

The cliché dinner party disaster is overcooked food because someone left it in the over for too long. We want to avoid this disaster, so we need to practice our time telling skills:

If we put the brownies in the oven at 2:15 and they take 30 minutes to bake, when should we take them out of the oven?

Our chicken recipe says to leave it in the oven for 40 minutes. If we put the chicken in at 5:50, what time should we take it out?

We Need New Pans

2008-11-04T12:37:00.000-08:00

Our brownie recipe calls for a 9 x 13 inch pan, but our pans are worn down so that we can only see one number on the label. We know that the area is 117 inches²and that one side of the pan is 9 inches. The formula for the area of a rectangle is A=LW, where L=length and W=width. What would our formula for area look like using an algebraic symbol for the unknown side? What is the length of the unknown side of the pan?

This Pot or that Pot

2008-11-04T12:25:00.000-08:00

When cooking and baking it is always important to have the right size pan. A pan that is too big will cook too quickly, and a pan that is too small will either not cook the food evenly or the ingredients won't fit.

For our tomato sauce we need a 3 quart pot, but our pots are not labeled! The equation for volume of a cylinder is V = πr²h, with r being the radius of the pot, and h being the height of the pot. To convert to quarts, multiply volume by 0.0011.

Pot 1: r= 5 cm, h= 8 cm

Pot 2: r= 9 cm, h= 11 cm

Which pot should we use, and why?

OH NO!!!

2008-11-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

We've lost some of our measuring instruments! We have to measure 2/3 tbs of baking soda for the brownies, but we only have 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 tbs measuring tools. How can we measure this? ESTIMATION! What is the closest we can get to 2/3 tbs using the three sizes we have? What is the difference?

Sifting: Every Baker's Nightmare

2008-11-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

When flour sits in a bag, it becomes condensed and can form clumps. When baking, you need to sift your flour to make it light and clump-free once again. After sifting, you end up with more flour than you started with, and every experienced baker knows how annoying it is to scoop the extra back up and put it back in the bag. Rather than sift every time, we wanted to find out just how much flour is leftover after sifting, so that we can just subtract that from our unsifted flour.

We measured out 1c of unsifted all purpose flour, sifted it and found that we now had 1c and 2 tbs of flour. How much unsifted flour will we need to measure in the future?

Adding Fractions

2008-11-04T11:38:00.000-08:00

The recipe says to mix 3/4 cup of cheese into the tomato sauce, and then sprinkle 1 1/2 cups of cheese over the top of the chicken. How much cheese will we need altogether?

Temperature

2008-11-04T09:32:00.000-08:00

Our recipe tells us to preheat the oven to 177 degrees Celsius, but our oven is labeled in degrees Fahrenheit. We know that the formula to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit is (9/5) x degrees Celsius +32. What should we preheat the oven to?

Conversions

2008-11-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

To bread the chicken, we need to mix 1 cup of bread crumbs with 1 1/2 tablespoon of water. We only have 1/4cup and 1/2 teaspoon measuring tools. If 3 teaspoons are equal to 1 tablespoon, how many measurements of 1/2 teaspoon of water will we need, and how many measurements of 1/4cup of bread crumbs will we need?

We Love Protein!

2008-11-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

Another one of our friends is concerned with how much protein he is consuming per day. He wants to make sure he consumes 80g of protein a day. If one serving of chicken has 15g, tomato sauce had 0.5g, ziti has 3g, cheese has 12g, and green beans have 5g of protein, what percent of his daily value will our dinner be?

Na: Yea or Nay?

2008-11-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

One of our friends has to watch her sodium intake for medical reasons. She should not consume more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day.

Spaghetti has 610mg of sodium
Green beans have 270mg of sodium
Bread crumbs have 320mg of sodium
Cheese has 300mg of sodium

Can she eat our meal?

How to Make $1.97

2008-11-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

There is nothing more annoying to us than a large pile of change. There are many different ways one can break up a dollar in change, but we want the most efficient way possible. What is the easiest way the cashier can give us our change of $1.97?

Calculating Change

2008-11-03T20:47:00.000-08:00

If we give the cashier a $20 bill to pay for our groceries, how much will we get back in change?

Shopping on a Budget

2008-11-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

Being poor college students, we only have $20 to spend on groceries. We already have the ingredients for brownies, so we just need to buy food for the dinner.

Chicken costs $1.89 per pound, and we are going to buy 2.15 lbs.

1 lb of ziti costs $1.78

1 can of spaghetti sauce costs $2.09

Bread crumbs cost $3.23

A 12 oz. package of cheese costs $2.47, but the 16 oz. package is $2.85. Which one is the better deal and why?

The green beans are on sale with a Shaw's reward card. Originally they were $1.64 a can, but with our card they are 2 cans for $3.00. How much do we save?

What will our total cost be, including $0.06 sales tax ? Is it under our budget?

Servings

2008-11-03T20:21:00.000-08:00

We are going to have a dinner party for six of our friends. We want to serve Chicken Parmesan over pasta with green beans and brownies for desert. Having a dinner party takes a lot of planning.

The first step in planning a dinner party, is figuring out how many servings we will need.

1lb of chicken serves 4 people
1lb of ziti serves 8 people
1 jar of spaghetti sauce will serve 6
12 oz. of shredded mozzarella will serve 8
a 12 oz. can of green beans serves 4 people

How much of each item will we need to serve 8 people?