Not even a tablespoon
Earlier today, I was lauding this new online vocabulary game that awards ten grains of rice to feed the hungry for each correct answer. I played until I won 500 grains of rice, then wondered how much that was exactly. I was very naive thinking it might be a cup or half a cup. WRONG!
Still, this question provided great "Math You See" today. Great application of seeing math work. After Giles also earned 500 grains of rice on the game, he counted rice, ten grains at a time, then lined them up in five rows of ten piles.
We got Lydia and Grant in on the fun. We discussed and saw the rows of rice and the different ways it added up and multiplied to 50o.
Then we got out a couple of rice bowls - a tiny bowl that is probably really a sauce bowl, and a little rice bowl (bought from our local favorite Asian market). Still optimistic. The rice barely covered the bottom of the tiny bowl.
Then we got out the measuring spoons and our contribution was barely a paltry (one of the test words) tablespoon each.
Giles observed that a "vocabulary professor" should get on that game and play for four hours straight and really help people.
Posted in: on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at at 11:13 AM
Well, it will be a lot more rice when it's cooked, though, right?
Angi Lovejoy,
Rice Eater