Which Way?
How would you solve the story problem using metric conversions?
Goal:
Goal:
Measuring is a big part of everyday life--whether you are cooking, building, sewing or setting up a sports event. The story problem below is an example of measurement and unit conversion in everyday life.
There are 32 liters of soup in a pot. The restaurant serves customers 400 milliliters of the soup in each bowl. If 40 customers ate soup, how much soup is left in the pot?
Work through the problem on your own, then compare your solution to the students’ solutions below. Click the image of each student to see how they thought about and solved this problem. How does your solution compare to these students?
I converted 400 milliliters to 0.4 liters because the “King Henry” saying tells me that to convert from milliliters to liters, I need to move the decimal point three jumps to the left. Since 40 customers ate soup, 40 times 0.4 liters per bowl is 16 liters. This means there are 32 liters minus 16 liters of soup left over, which is 16 liters. Half of the soup is left!
Each bowl has 400 milliliters of soup, and 40 bowls of soup were eaten: 400 milliliters times 40 bowls is 16,000 milliliters. The “King Henry” saying tells me that to convert from milliliters to liters, I need to move the decimal point three jumps to the left, so 16,000 milliliters equals 16 liters. And 32 liters of soup minus 16 liters of soup means 16 liters of soup is left over. Half of the soup is left!
I know that 400 milliliters of soup is in each bowl and 40 bowls of soup were eaten. So, 400 milliliters of soup times 40 bowls is 16,000 milliliters of soup. Then, I need to figure out how much total soup I have in milliliters. The “King Henry” saying tells me that to convert 32 liters of soup to an amount measured in milliliters, I need to move the decimal point three jumps to the right. So, 32 liters is the same as 32,000 milliliters. 32,000 milliliters of soup minus 16,000 milliliters of soup is 16,000 milliliters left over. Half of the soup is left!