I thought I'd start this week by blogging one of my activities separately from my reflection piece.
Munchies Mathematics
The inspiration was found in Vi Hart's Math Improv: Smarties video. Oh, and that this was homework for the week!
I started with a bag of Original Munchies Snack Mix. I LOVE Munchies too much so I don't bring it into the house often but having to do math with a snack was a good reason to go buy some!
I wondered about the proportion of the parts to each other - the pretzels, Doritos, Sunchips and Cheetos. Are the treats equal in representation in the mix? Is there one treat that is included more than the others?
I decided to go with weight to check this out, considering the ingredients are different sizes and shapes. The bag says there are 250g in the bag. Bag and snacks weighed in at 260g and when I weighed the empty bag, it was 10g so 250g written on the bag is accurate. (And now I have to believe the manufacturers reaction to complaints that the bag is mostly air when they say it is true to the weight indicated on the bag.)
Next step, sort the parts into bowls:
I actually had to swap the bowls for Sunchips and Cheetos part way through, having grossly over-estimated the amount of Sunchips.
Weighing in commenced and results recorded - and rechecked when they didn't add up to 250g.
Seriously, why bother with the Sunchips at this amount?!
Working out the ratios was next:
Finally, I thought, "What would my perfect proportions of ingredients be?" I can do without Sunchips and I wouldn't mind more Cheetos relative to Doritos and pretzels. I decided on a Doritos: Cheetos: Pretzels ratio of 1:3:1. I checked the bag for serving size and it was a convenient 50g, meaning I needed 10g of Doritos and Pretzels and 30g of Cheetos to make my perfect serving of Munchie mix and I weighed out the ingredients accordingly.
Finally, I thought, "How many perfect servings could I make with my one bag?" I have to look at the Cheetos because they are the ingredient requiring the most grams. The total in the bag was about 78g and at 30g per perfect serving, I can only get 2 perfect servings out of a bag that contains 5 servings of 50g.
But Munchies are pretty good the way they are, so after enjoying one perfect serving, I threw all the remaining ingredients back together!
Hey Sandra!
ReplyDeleteI like this a lot! I'm surprised there are so few sun chips in there!
But I thought I'd just check prices out at Walmart (for no reason in particular) and these are the prices I found:
Sun Chips: $1.69/100g (https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/sun-chips-harvest-cheddar-multigrain-snacks/6000202808472)
Doritos: $1.26/100g (https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/doritos-nacho-cheese-tortilla-chips/6000202808451)
Cheetos: $1.14/100g (https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/cheetos-puffs-cheese-snacks/6000202808430)
Pretzels: $1.07/100g (https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/rold-gold-classic-thins-pretzels/6000202776200)
I think there's a bit of a correlation there! The cheaper the snack, the more they throw into the mix!
But I agree with your revamp of the mixture - I personally would like just the Cheetos and Doritos though because they're gluten free :) 25 grams of each pleeeeeease!!!
I am so happy that I started my evening reading with this post! I'm having a Pavlovian response: MSG Munchies, mmm! If we were sitting together in 2019, I would gladly take your Sun Chips- the saltier cousin of Vi Hart's "rare, special purplybits"(Vihart Math Improv: Smarties YouTube video)... but what to trade away?? I, too, covet the Cheetos which leaves Doritos and Pretzels 'in the mix'. I'm not sure if Cassie's gluten free request is preference or necessity, so in the interest of cohort kindness and safe snacking, I would attempt to trade my pretzels for Sandra's Sun Chips and my Doritos for Cassie's Sun Chips- which would definitely leave me with a decrease in portion-size and guilt. Using Sandra's original weight distributions (and assuming that all 3 of us were given identical bags... probability inquiry, anyone??), my 250g of guilty pleasure would be reduced to a 138g delicious duo of Sun Chips (60g- 43%) and Cheetos (78g- 57%) in near-perfect proportion. Feel free to check my math; it's hard to focus while drooling over imagined Cheetos and Sun Chips...
ReplyDeleteOh wow! Thanks for your engagement with this, both of you!
ReplyDeleteFor Cassie's comment - we could now calculate if it would be cheaper in the long run to buy the ingredients separately and make our own mix at home!
For Natalie's - ooohhh...percentages now! yup - definitely saw the chance to look at probability (though thought I would do that with the bag of Sour Patch Kids that I actually went to the store to purchase and came home with both the sour candy and the Muchies).
Such a fun post and an engaging discussion! There can be so many math ideas involved - ratio, percent, probability, unit rate, etc. Munchies Mathematics reminds me of some of Peter Liljedahl's Numeracy Tasks. If I am back to the classroom, I could turn this into an activity for Math 8, as it integrates so many topics in that course! Thanks Sandra for sharing a cool idea!
ReplyDelete