Food By the Numbers: Math & Your Thanksgiving Meal

Food By the Numbers: Math & Your Thanksgiving Meal

For many of us, Thanksgiving officially kicks off the holiday season. We look forward to family, friends, fun and of course, the food!  Math can be your secret ingredient in the kitchen as you help your family prepare your favorite recipes. To prepare for the big day, let's get in the kitchen and plan our fantasy Thanksgiving meal using our math skills.

The Main Attraction: The Turkey

What is Thanksgiving without a turkey? According to the National Turkey Federation, it's estimated that 46 million turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving Day. That's a lot of turkeys!

For our imaginary Thanksgiving dinner, let's invite 11 dinner guests. The average size of a turkey is 15 pounds, with a recommended serving size of 1 to 1 and ½ pounds of turkey per person. Is a 15 pound turkey large enough to feed our guests?

If each guest is served 1 pound of turkey, we know with 11 guests we would have enough. But, what if we want to serve each guest 1 and ½ pounds of turkey? Let's divide 15 pounds into 1.5 pound servings:

15 pounds / 1.5 pound servings = 10 servings.

One guest would miss out on a serving of turkey! We either have to serve our guests no more than 1 pound each or purchase a larger turkey.

The Perfect Side Dish: Cranberry Sauce

The perfect complement to turkey is cranberry sauce. We pay a visit to our local grocery store and purchase a 14 ounce can. Is 14 ounces enough to serve to our 11 guests? The standard serving size for cranberry sauce is 1/4 cup per serving.

First, how many ounces are in 1 cup? 8 ounces. To determine how many ounces are in ¼ cup, we multiply by 8.

¼ * 8 =  2

2 ounces are in ¼ cup

If each guest receives 2 ounces of cranberry sauce, we then multiply to find the total number of ounces of cranberry sauce we need.

11 guests * 2 ounces per guest =

 22 ounces

Math once again saves the day and lets us know a 14 ounce can will not be enough for all of our guests. We need at least 22 ounces to serve everyone. If we buy one more 14 ounce can of cranberry sauce, we know that two cans of cranberry sauce will give us 28 ounces, enough for each guest, with leftovers.

The Grand Finale: Pumpkin Pie

To finalize our Thanksgiving feast, we've got to have dessert. Pumpkin pie is the perfect way to "round" out our meal! And a perfect way to practice calculating the parts of a circle. A standard pie plate is 9 inches. Using this information, let's calculate the area, or surface space of a 9-inch pie circle. To find the area of a circle, you use the following equation:

A = πr²: 

Area = pi times the radius squared. 

**Remember that pi is 3.14 (rounded)

Before we can calculate the area using this equation, notice we need to find the radius, or the distance from the center of the circle. To find the radius, we first need to determine the diameter, the distance through the center of the circle from end to end

We have a 9 inch pie plate, so the diameter is 9 inches. Since we know the diameter, we solve for radius by simply dividing the diameter by 2.

Radius = Diameter / 2

 9 divided by 2 = 4.5

Now we can plug in the radius in our equation to find the area:

A = πr²:

A=  3.14*(4.5)²

= 3.14 * 20.25

= 63.6

A 9-inch pie plate has an area of 63 inches squared.

Lastly, let's calculate the circumference of our 9-inch pie plate, or the border around the circle. The formula to calculate the circumference is:

C = 2π * radius

= 6.28 * radius

We calculated our radius earlier as 4.5.

C = 6.28 * 4.5 = 28.26

Our 9-inch pie plate has a circumference, or border around of 28.26 inches.

We hope you will be able to use some of the tips above to make a Thanksgiving meal to remember. After you enjoy your Thanksgiving nap, give us a call or reach out to us online to learn more about our Mathnasium center and to schedule your child's free no-risk math assessment. We specialize in individualized math instruction for students in grades 2 through 12. Instruction is offered in-person and online to meet you and your child's scheduling needs.

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!