measurments?

Question

I'm making cookies. I need to ad 2 1/4 cups of flower, and 3/4 a cup of sugar. The problem is, I only have a 1/3 cup measurer. Hoe can I measure that?

Answer 1

OK, I've been thinking about this a while. I think I have a way so that you don't have to "guess", although you'll end up wasting some flour and sugar. Hope that's ok.

Here's my idea.

You're looking for a total of 3 cups, 2 1/4 + 3/4 = 3.

You can also write this as 9/4 + 3/4 = 3.

So you want to have the ratio of flour to sugar to be 9 parts to 3 parts, or 3 parts to 1 part. As long as you add 3 measuring cups of flour for every 1 measuring cup of sugar, you'll get the right mixture.

Measure out 9 full measuring cups of flour and 3 full measuring cups of sugar, dump them all into a different bowl, and mix them well. You'll then have (9/3 + 3/3 =) 4 cups of a mixture that has the right proportion of flour to sugar. So just scoop out 9 full measuring cups of the mixture (for a total of 3 cups)...and throw away the remaining cup of mixed flour and sugar.

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I apologize to the previous answerer for the thumbs-down. I thought his numbers were wrong, but after writing it out, I see that his way would work too. I still think my solution is more mathematically elegant, in that it doesn't require the asker to "eyeball" and produces the exact mixture required (at the expense of some flour and sugar). In the real world, I'd probably do it his way, though.

Answer 2

Here's what you could do:

For 2 1/4 cups: Fill your 1/3 cup container completely 6 times. The 7th time, fill it 3/4 of the way.

For 3/4 cup: Fill your 1/3 cup container completely 2 times. The 3rd time, fill it 1/4 of the way.

Good luck!