Some things work the same way InRealLife and in schoolbooks and some things don't. Though, to be honest, at the moment, I cannot think of anything that does work the same way.
Anyhow. The thing that has been bugging me lately is eggs. Mr Music is at one of those fast growth periods where he eats and eats, especially protein. So I have become a big fan of The Egg.
And the thing that stands out to me about eggs is the way they are sold by dozens (is this the case all around the world? It does seem rather arbitrary). In math books a dozen also works out to be such a handy number when you do fractions - it can easily divide in halves, thirds, fourths, or sixths. Then WHY IS IT that I never seem to exactly finish a carton of eggs? No matter how many Mr Music wants to eat at a pop, or no matter how many my recipe calls for, I always seem to have ONE left in the carton or need ONE from the next carton. In Other Words, despite the superior divisibility of 12... it just doesn't work for me. :-P
Anyhow. The thing that has been bugging me lately is eggs. Mr Music is at one of those fast growth periods where he eats and eats, especially protein. So I have become a big fan of The Egg.
And the thing that stands out to me about eggs is the way they are sold by dozens (is this the case all around the world? It does seem rather arbitrary). In math books a dozen also works out to be such a handy number when you do fractions - it can easily divide in halves, thirds, fourths, or sixths. Then WHY IS IT that I never seem to exactly finish a carton of eggs? No matter how many Mr Music wants to eat at a pop, or no matter how many my recipe calls for, I always seem to have ONE left in the carton or need ONE from the next carton. In Other Words, despite the superior divisibility of 12... it just doesn't work for me. :-P
Yes, even in our very metric area of the world eggs come in dozens. Even chocolate eggs are packaged into cartons of twelve. I emphathise with the fast growing phase. In our household keeping a gluten-free teenager fed is hard work when cheap and easy bread is off the menu!
ReplyDeleteAs you know I do not believe in rhetorical questions and somehow feel obligated to answer them, so at the risk of violating all social norms, here goes: Let's pretend styrofoam plates were sold by the dozen and families always had the same number of people dine at the table for every meal. Then things would work out fine whether there were 2, 3, 4, 6, or 12 people the package would be used up perfectly. But in the real world not everyone shows up at every meal, sometimes guests show up, or sometimes someone wants a clean plate for leftovers, snack, or whatever. In other words, we only had 12 the first time -- the second time we went to open the package we had some other number and it most certainly was not divisible by all the factors (2, 3, 4, and 6). Analogously, not all recipes call for the same number of eggs, so after the first withdrawal is made, there is no real likelihood that all subsequent withdrawals will be the same amount. In other words if all your recipes called for the same number of eggs (and it was a factor of 12, e.g., 2, 3, 4, 6, or 12) you'd never have to open more than one carton at a meal (unless of course you had a broken egg or you chose to make multiple recipes or batches or you wanted to throw one at someone who went on and on about factors.)
ReplyDeleteThe beautiful part about having chickens is that there's never just ONE left in the carton because there's always one more in the coop.
ReplyDelete