Motivated Mathematics

I've always loved math.  I was the Math Olympiad winner three years running in elementary school.  I used to write myself long long-division problems during summer vacation just because I was bored.  What's 36,183,756,383,729 divided by 26?  Let's find out!  (Not really - I've since discovered the joy of calculators.)

Anyway, when James and I decided to make Rice Krispy squares this evening, I thought I had enough ingredients, but when we got home, I found that one of the bags of marshmallows in the pantry was fruit flavored.  No way.  And I wasn't about to go back out and buy more marshmallows, so I took stock of what I did have.

  

Four cups of mini-mallows (mallow-flavored).

Now, my cardinal rule of Krispy squares is this:

5 Tbsp butter

6 cups mini mallows

9 cups Rice Krispies

So, with four cups of mallows and a major Krispy jonsin', what's a girl to do?  Anwer: fractions!

First, since the mallows determine our lowest common denominator, I needed to find the conversion rate between what I usually use and what I have:  6 x ? = 4

Anybody?  Anybody?  Buhler?  2/3 is the conversion factor.

So, now to convert the Krispies and the butter by 2/3.

5 x 2/3 = 10/3 or 3 1/3 tbsp butter

9 x 2/3 = 6 cups Krispies

 

Then I was faced with another problem: I don't have a casserole dish 2/3 the size of my regular dish.  But I did have one roughly half the size, and thanks to the laws of displacement...

Super tall Krispy squares!

So, did I get the magic formula right?

I only caught the first bite because it's hard to take pictures and eat a Krispy square at the same time.  Gets the camera all sticky.

Mmm . . . oh yeah, I got it right . . .