Measurement In The Food Store

[Music] [Applause] [Music] today is shopping day for the Martins Sue and Jim have come with their parents to buy some things for a party how much food will they need that question much is an important one let's see how the Martins answer the question of how much as they use different kinds of measurement in their shopping sometimes we use General measures such as small size or large size for example mother wants to buy a large melon usually it's pretty easy to tell a large size from a smaller size it's the larger one mother wants what about the next item on mother's list four large sweet potatoes large size is not a good measure when you can't tell which is larger by just looking see Sue has chosen a round plump sweet potato while mother has chosen one of the long thin potatoes which one is actually larger to answer we need a more exact measurement to decide which is larger let's think it through we could measure by length and width but the shapes are irregular and hard to measure this way the more accurate measure would be by weight quickly tells us that the long thin sweet potato is the larger by weight so measuring by weight is one way we can be precise and exact sometimes we may have to compare standard units of measurement to be precise and exact oranges are often sold by the Dozen when we measure by the Dozen we're measuring by number of items here a dozen oranges costs 79 cents however oranges are sometimes sold by weight today five pound bags of oranges are selling at the same price as a dozen loose oranges dad thinks they'll get more quantity for their money buying a dozen oranges Jim thinks they'll get more quantity buying five pounds who's right let's compare the units of measurement if we measure by number of items we see that the five pound bag contains 15 oranges more oranges than in the Dozen but by size the oranges in the five pound bag are slightly smaller than the others to measure exactly we must compare the five pound bag with the weight of the Dozen loose oranges so the Dozen loose oranges weighing almost six pounds will be the better buy for the Martin family in this case the problem of how much was answered by using units of weight as a measure let's remember though that there are times when weight is not an exact enough measure liquids for example are usually measured not by weight but by the volume or amount of space they take up the basic unit of liquid measure is the fluid ounce but fluids may be labeled also in gallons quartz and Pints as well as fluid ounces this bottle contains one pint and eight fluid ounces mother and Sue are wondering though will they have more syrup if they buy two of these 1.8 ounce bottles or one of the larger bottles so is remembering what she knows about the units of liquid measurement if we measured the syrup we'd find that the total amount of syrup in these two smaller bottles measures 48 fluid ounces while the syrup in the large bottle measures only 32 fluid ounces or one quart in this case then mother and Sue will buy more syrup by purchasing the two smaller bottles here comes another problem in liquid measurement for her party Sue wants to make some fruit punch this can a fruit juice concentrate contains one half pint with water added this will make one and a half pints of fruit punch Sue has invited six guests if each guest drinks an eight ounce glass let's see that means we'll need 48 ounces of punch the problem is how many cans of juice concentrate will make 48 ounces of punch Sue knows that a half pint can contains eight fluid ounces we can make one and a half pints of punch by adding a pint of water to the concentrate one and a half pints is equal to 24 fluid ounces this is exactly half the amount of punch Sue needs so it's easy to figure out that two cans of juice concentrate will be needed if Sue is to have enough to make exactly 48 fluid ounces of punch there's one more thing Sue has to get for the party dessert here's just the thing fresh strawberries these strawberries are also being sold by the pint but in this case the pint is not a unit of liquid measure the kind of pint used as a measure for berries is a dry pint a unit of dry measure in liquid measure two pints equal one quart the same is true of dry measure two pints equal one quart in volume but are two pints equal to one quart in weight let's compare two dry pints of berries and one dry quart of tomatoes by weight the dry quart of tomatoes weighs more than the two dry pints of berries so fruits and vegetables sold by dry measure are being measured not by weight but by volume but Jim has to figure out a problem of weight measurement he's going to buy some frozen Chop Suey to serve at the party but here's the problem the large carton of chop suey which weighs two pounds and eight ounces makes 10 servings it might be better to buy these smaller cartons which weigh one pound each but how many one pound cartons shall he buy to serve six people Jim is thinking in the large carton what is the total number of ounces Jim knows that one pound is equal to 16 ounces so 2 times 16 is 32 plus eight more equals 40 ounces of chop suey this serves 10 40 divided by 10 equals four ounces four ounces of Chop Suey is an average serving but Jim needs six servings six times four equals 24 ounces not enough in one one pound carton more than enough in two cartons way too much in three cartons the 32 ounces and two one pound cartons will be enough so Jim puts back the 40 ounce Carton and takes the smaller cartons totaling 32 ounces knowing how much we're buying then depends on how well we can use the different standard units of measurement but we haven't seen all the units of measurement used in the food store some items such as clothesline are best measured by length inches feet and yards still other items such as wax paper and metal foils can be measured by length and width in units of square measure finally we have to use another kind of unit of measurement money in standard units of dollars and cents is one measurement of value this kind of measurement is as widely used as the others we've seen measurement by specific numbers measurement by weight measurement by length measurement by volume and measurement by size all measurements are useful tools they're used in answering the important question of how much We'll be asking ourselves the question of how much not only when shopping but in many other things we'll do every day [Music]