Toucan Sam Following His Nose to Mathematics Fun
Call me crazy, but maybe all that fun IMM-ing last night has gone to my head and put me in the mood for all sorts of wild and crazy math adventures! (Were taking a break from needless research today to do some meaningless statistics) I'm talking to Michelle online (who seems to be the impetus for many of these) and the topic is cereal. I go to the kitchen cabinet and pull out a box at random. It happens to be Marshmallow Froot Loops ("with toucans, palm trees, and butterfly shaped marshmallows"). This prompts me to remark, "If i ate 3 bowls of Marshmallow Froot Loops, I'd have my recommended daily value of Vitamin B12." Innocent enough? Yeah. A violation of mathematics? Like you wouldn't believe...
One bowl of Marshmallow Froot Loops (with 1/2 cup of fat-free milk) contains 35% DV of Vitamin B12. This means I would need to consume 2.86 servings of cereal to get my 100% DV.
But what is a serving, really?
Well, a serving is 30 grams of cereal (and marshmallows), but is that the same amount of cereal I like to eat?
Using a food scale, I first weighed the cereal bowl. The bowl, a white ceramic with blue flowers decorating the outside, weighed in at 220 grams. I dumped handfuls of cereal in until I reached the 250 gram plateau (about 3.5 handfuls). This wasn't quite what I considered to be a serving of cereal. I'm more of a 40-45 gram guy, so, to avoid any contreversy, we'll use 45 grams.
All right, so if there's 35% DV of B12 in 30 grams of cereal, proportionally, that must mean there's a 52.5% DV of B12 in a Kevin-sized bowl of cereal. Don't forget that the amount of milk as well as cereal is increased.
To sum up, when I said 3 bowls would suffice in my search for 100% daily value of Vitamin B12, I was horribly mistaken. In actuality, 1.9 bowls would be enough. To the word of the day (one of my favorites)!
namby-pamby adj. : full of or exhibiting weak sentimentality; insipid; timid and irresolute
One bowl of Marshmallow Froot Loops (with 1/2 cup of fat-free milk) contains 35% DV of Vitamin B12. This means I would need to consume 2.86 servings of cereal to get my 100% DV.
But what is a serving, really?
Well, a serving is 30 grams of cereal (and marshmallows), but is that the same amount of cereal I like to eat?
Using a food scale, I first weighed the cereal bowl. The bowl, a white ceramic with blue flowers decorating the outside, weighed in at 220 grams. I dumped handfuls of cereal in until I reached the 250 gram plateau (about 3.5 handfuls). This wasn't quite what I considered to be a serving of cereal. I'm more of a 40-45 gram guy, so, to avoid any contreversy, we'll use 45 grams.
All right, so if there's 35% DV of B12 in 30 grams of cereal, proportionally, that must mean there's a 52.5% DV of B12 in a Kevin-sized bowl of cereal. Don't forget that the amount of milk as well as cereal is increased.
To sum up, when I said 3 bowls would suffice in my search for 100% daily value of Vitamin B12, I was horribly mistaken. In actuality, 1.9 bowls would be enough. To the word of the day (one of my favorites)!
namby-pamby adj. : full of or exhibiting weak sentimentality; insipid; timid and irresolute