It's a Thanksgiving Word Problem Giveaway!

^{(Image via Satya Murthy on Flickr)}

We’re counting down to Thanksgiving with a word problem giveaway! Solve our two Thanksgiving problems below and send in your answers to [email protected] for a chance to win an awesome Mathnasium prize pack. Good luck!

Sarah is making cranberry sauce for her family's Thanksgiving dinner. Her recipe serves 5 people and calls for 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water, 4 cups of cranberries, and the zest of half an orange. In addition to her mother, father, and twin brothers, 10 people are coming over for Thanksgiving dinner. How much of each ingredient does Sarah need to buy at the store? 

There are 13 giant balloon characters in Larry's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The parade begins with a giant balloon icosahedron and ends with a giant balloon Mobius strip. Thirty minutes of the parade is taken up by the balloons, and the parade is 2 hours long in total. What is the average amount of time between giant balloon characters?

Update: Thanks to everyone who participated! Here are the answers to our Thanksgiving word problems:

1. 3 cups of sugar, 12 cups of cranberries, and 2 oranges... because you can't buy half an orange!
2. 7 minutes, 30 seconds. If the parade begins and ends with giant balloons, then there are 12 gaps between the balloons. Two hours minus the 30 minutes there's a balloon in front of you makes 90 minutes sans balloons. Ninety minutes divided among 12 gaps is an average of 7.5 minutes per gap.