What are the applications of mathematics in kitchen?

Answer 1

Well, multiplication and division of fractions is the first thing I think of. If a recipe calls for 1/4 cup of milk, how much do you use for a 1/2 batch? How about 3 batches?

Adding fractions might also be important. If you put 3 1/3 cups of sugar in a measuring bowl and you need to add 1/2 cup of flour, how much should you have in there?

Of course there's always conversions, too. Suppose a recipe uses metric and you only have imperial measurements.

That's all the comes off the top of my head...there may be more.

Answer 2

Anytime you need to either expand or recude a recipe, you'll be using math in the kitchen.

E.g., An original recipe lists these ingredients:
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp oregano
1/4 cup milk
3 cloves garlic
Serves 2

Let's say you need to serve 8 people this dish. Using proportions, you'll need to multiply this recipe by 8/2 = 4 times.

Using a matrix
4 x [ 2/3 1 1/4 3 ]
[8/3 4 4/4 12]
[2&2/3 4 1 12]
So now you know the new levels of each ingredient:
2-2/3 cups sugar
4 tsp oregano
1 cup milk
12 cloves garlic

Answer 3

Primodial Soup Kitchen :
Designed by a math professor at University of Wisconsin, this site invites you into the virtual kitchen--where beautiful computer graphics are created with mathematical formulas.

Cool Site: April 1997

Answer 4

Most recipes call for specific quantities of ingredients in fractional amounts. 1/2 cup of milk, 3/4 cup of water, 2 1/2 tablespoons of sugar etc... so a familiarity with fractions is very helpful. Also being able to double or triple portions or reducing them by a 1/3 or a 1/2 if cooking for more or less people.
Conversion between units is also important. To go from ounces to milliliters and pounds to grams or kilograms etc...

Answer 5

I appreciate your question. Infact, just today, a Home Science student asked me why I am teaching Mathematics. I replied that Maths is required in every aspect of life. If you want to make one cup of tea, you will put 1 tsp of sugar, but if you make 2 cups of tea, you have to put 2 tsps of sugar. Who has taught this to your local chaiwala? He is uneducated but still knows maths. Now find out in how many ways Maths will help you in kitchen? I asked a drunkard, " How many quarters did you consume" He replied, " Sir, 2". I further asked him how many halves he had consumed? He replied, "Sir, 1"? How could he say the correct answer without maths? Now figure it out how he got to the right answer.

Answer 6

I hope the question is about mental mathematics.

Add unwanted rubbish things into your mind.
multiply them to infinite and pass on the problem to one and all.
Then divide the "one and all" to your taste and when you
subtract everybody you will get ZERO.

This is how most of the ladies in kitchen do their mental mathematics.

Answer 7

Apart from measuring quantities and temperatures, every article in the kitchen - the microwave, burner, tools, utensils, gas cylinders, etc. involve mathematics in their working principles, invention, manufacturing. You also need math to sell them and buy them.
There's a little bit of math everywhere.

Answer 8

Well I believe that when you are baking and you need to measure 1 cup and a half of flour, and oops, you have one measuring cup that is a 1/4 cup...how do you get a cup and a half? well 4/4 is 1 whole and 2/4 is 1/2 so you would need 6 1/4 cups to measure a cup and a half of flour. That is just one example.

Answer 9

Kitchen is some sort of manufacturing unit. So erection of it requires measurement, in that mathematics is involved.
Similarly the manufacturing of food item requires measured quantity that requires again math.

Answer 10

Changing a recipe: How to double it.
Used in measuring: Don't have a cup measure, what do you use?
Identifying a pan: square, rectangle, circle
Size of pan: Look at the pan and estimate the size.

General understanding what is need when reading the recipe.