A Mathematical Marshmallow Mess

Last night after supper I decided to whip up a pan of Rice Krispie Squares. However, my recipe (and any other recipe I could find with the same title) called for 40 large marshmallows. I was doubling my recipe, so I required 80 large marshmallows.

My problem: I only had mini marshmallows on hand.

So, I went on a quest to find out how many mini marshmallows I would need in order to make the equivalent of 80 large ones. If you can believe this, the research I found said 10. Ten mini marshmallows for one large one seemed like a lot to me, but off I went, counting out my mini marshmallows at a ratio of 10:1.

Using this ratio, and considering the fact that I had doubled my recipe, it meant counting out 800 mini marshmallows. I quit counting individual marshmallows once I got to 60 minis. That means that I had only reached a total of 6 large marshmallows. I looked into my pot and decided that a 10:1 ratio was too many minis. So, I resorted to using my hand instead. I guesstimated that one handful of mini marshmallows is equivalent to about 3 large ones, so therefore for 80 large (minus the 6 I had already counted out), I needed about 25 handfuls of mini marshmallows in order to prepare my Rice Krispie Cake with success.

As the marshmallows and margarine were melting before me, I began to wonder if I had done the right thing. But in all honesty, if I hadn't reverted to the "guesstimate" method and actually counted them out instead, I'd probably still be counting mini marshmallows. 800 of them.

So, you may have just learned something new. Or maybe not. Perhaps I should have sought all of your advice on this topic instead of Google's advice. In any case, the outcome was a delicious treat!