Question

You're planning on making 7 meatloafs for a party. You go to the store to buy breadcrumbs, and see they are sold by the canister. How many canisters do you need to buy? First, determine what information you need to answer this question, then click here to display that info (along with other info). How much breadcrumbs does the recipe call for? It calls for 1 1/4 cups of breadcrumbs. How many meatloafs does the recipe make? It makes 1 meatloaf. How many people can 1 meatloaf feed? It says it serves 8. How big is the canister? It is cylindrical, 3.5 inches across and 7 inches tall. What is the net weight of the contents of 1 canister? 15 ounces. How much does a canister cost? $2.19 How much does a cup of breadcrumbs weigh? I'm not sure, but maybe something from the nutritional label will help. Nutritional label showing the serving size is 1/3 cup (30g), and there are about 14 servings per container.

Answer 1

Let's first find out how much breadcrumbs we're going to need:
1 3/4 cups → 7/4 cups per meatloaf
7 cups/4 * 1 meatloaf * 7 meatloafs = 49/4 cups of breadcrumbs needed in total.

Now let's find out how many cups are in a canister:
1/3 * 14 = 14/3 cups (we're given 1/3 a cup is a single serving size, and each canister holds about 14 servings)

Here's the algebraic way of solving:
14/3 n ≥ 49/4, where n is the number of canisters needed. I'm using ≥ because we cannot buy only part of a canister. Multiply both sides by 3/14:
14/3 n * 3/14 ≥ 49/4 * 3/14
We can factor out a 7:
n ≥ 7/4 * 3/2
n ≥ 21/8 → 2 5/8
Rounding up, you're going to need three canisters:
28/3 (2 canisters) < 49/4 (needed) < 42/3 (3 canisters)
9 1/3 < 12 1/4 < 14