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!
