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From: "Evelyn C. Leeper" <evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom
Subject: Re: Household Algebra
Date: Fri, 3 May 2024 10:08:54 -0400
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On 5/1/24 7:38 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:
> 
> On another forum, I remarked that I frequently use high-school algebra
> in my sewing.  Tonight I need it for cooking -- I forgot to buy baking
> chocolate, but I have nine .88-ounce bars of 85% eating chocolate, and
> need four ounces to make a cake.
> 
> I think I'm gonna need a calculator.
> 
> Or, perhaps, I could just put them all in:
>    .88 x 9 x .85 = 7.92 x .85 = 6.732
> 
> Sanity check:  .85 x .88 = .748 oz/bar, three-fourths of nine is six
> and three fourths.
> 
> I usually put all four ounces into half a recipe, but this year I'm
> making a whole cake, so half again too much is going to be rather
> feeble chocolate.
> 
> I'd better make sure I have four eggs.
> 
> 
> I did check that I have a cup of pecans.

I can remember figuring out what proportions of evaporated milk and 
non-fat milk I needed to get the equivalent of whole milk.

I also use Diophantine equations to figure out how to apportion the cost 
of a $5 bag of books and DVDs to the individual items (which I admit may 
be a bit obsessive).

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper, http://leepers.us/evelyn, @eleeper@mastodon.social
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick
themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
--Sir Winston Churchill