{"id":1527,"date":"2013-03-14T05:29:33","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T05:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/?p=1527"},"modified":"2013-05-08T16:06:55","modified_gmt":"2013-05-08T16:06:55","slug":"math-fun-with-calories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/math-fun-with-calories\/","title":{"rendered":"Math: Fun with Calories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tutoring math, you’re often asked about real-world uses of it. \u00a0Here’s an application we might all find useful now and again.<\/h1>\n

Recently it occurred to me to look up the calorie density of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. \u00a0My reasoning was that peoples’ fear of fat must be motivated by a high calorie content. \u00a0Then again, I reflected, it’s sugary foods – desserts, for example – \u00a0that are often implicated as adding pounds. \u00a0Some people, though, suggest that red meat puts the weight on them.<\/p>\n

Is there a particular culprit, or do the foods work in concert to fatten us up? \u00a0Well, courtesy of\u00a0Wikipedia<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>I can report the following calorie densities:<\/p>\n

fats: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a09 cal\/g<\/p>\n

carbohydrates (flour, sugar, etc): \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a04 cal\/g<\/p>\n

protein \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 : \u00a04 cal\/g<\/p>\n

I decided to become my own calorie counter. \u00a0Selecting three foods, I read each food’s calorie count, then its grams of fat, carbohydrates, and protein. \u00a0Using the densities above, I calculated the food’s “theoretical” number of calories. \u00a0In each case it was spot on.<\/p>\n

Food 1:<\/p>\n

calories: \u00a0160 (reported on label)<\/p>\n

fat: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 5g
\ncarbohydrate: \u00a0 27g
\nprotein: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a01g<\/p>\n

To calculate the theoretical number of calories, we proceed as follows:<\/p>\n

from fat: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 9cal\/g x \u00a05g = \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a045 cal
\nfrom carbohydrates: \u00a0 4cal\/g x 27g = \u00a0 \u00a0108 cal
\nfrom protein: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a04cal\/g x \u00a0 1g = \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a04 cal
\n<\/span>total calories: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 157 cal<\/p>\n

What do you know? \u00a0The difference between 157 and 160 – which is less than 2 % – is probably due to rounding. \u00a0For practical purposes, it’s an exact match.<\/p>\n

Food 2: \u00a0the package said 5g of fat, 42g of carbohydrates, and 5g of protein. \u00a0It gave a calorie count of 230. \u00a0Here are my numbers:<\/p>\n

from fat: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a09cal\/g x 5g = \u00a0 \u00a0 45 cal
\nfrom carbohydrates: \u00a0 \u00a04cal\/g x 42g = \u00a0168 cal
\nfrom protein: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 4 cal\/g x 5g = \u00a0 \u00a0 20 cal<\/span>
\ntotal calories: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0233 cal<\/p>\n

Once again, the package’s count is spot on.<\/p>\n

Food 3: \u00a0The label says 8g fat, 3g carbohydrates, 4g protein, and 100 calories. \u00a0My calculation:<\/p>\n

from fat: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 9cal\/g x 8g = \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a072 cal
\nfrom carbohydrates: \u00a0 \u00a04cal\/g x 3g = \u00a0 \u00a0 12 cal
\nfrom protein: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 4cal\/g x 4g = \u00a0 \u00a0 16\u00a0cal<\/span>
\ntotal calories: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0100 cal<\/p>\n

Our formulaic calorie count exactly matches the label.<\/p>\n

You can use this fun method for predicting the calorie content of foods you make at home:)<\/p>\n

Posted by Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane,<\/a> Campbell River, BC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tutoring math, you’re often asked about real-world uses of it. \u00a0Here’s an application we might all find useful now and again. Recently it occurred to me to look up the calorie density of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. \u00a0My reasoning was …<\/p>\n

Math: Fun with Calories<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology-12","category-math","category-nursing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1527"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1813,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527\/revisions\/1813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}