Question

Nigel is making a cake the recipe calls for 1/3 cup of butter , 4 tablespoons of flour and 5 teaspoons of sugar if he used 9 tablespoons of flour how much butter does he need

Answer 1

To find out how much butter Nigel needs when using 9 tablespoons of flour instead of the 4 tablespoons called for in the original recipe, we first need to determine the scaling factor.

1. **Calculate the scaling factor**:
\[
\text{Scaling Factor} = \frac{\text{amount of flour used}}{\text{original amount of flour}} = \frac{9 \text{ tablespoons}}{4 \text{ tablespoons}} = 2.25
\]

2. **Determine the original amount of butter**:
The recipe calls for \( \frac{1}{3} \) cup of butter. We need to convert this amount into tablespoons for easier calculations, knowing that 1 cup equals 16 tablespoons:
\[
\frac{1}{3} \text{ cup} = \frac{1}{3} \times 16 \text{ tablespoons} = \frac{16}{3} \text{ tablespoons} \approx 5.33 \text{ tablespoons}
\]

3. **Scale the butter amount**:
Now we apply the scaling factor to the original amount of butter:
\[
\text{New amount of butter} = \text{original amount of butter} \times \text{Scaling Factor} = \frac{16}{3} \text{ tablespoons} \times 2.25
\]

Calculating that:
\[
\frac{16}{3} \times 2.25 = \frac{16 \times 2.25}{3}
\]
To calculate \( 16 \times 2.25 \):
\[
16 \times 2.25 = 36
\]
Now divide by 3:
\[
\frac{36}{3} = 12 \text{ tablespoons}
\]

Thus, if Nigel uses 9 tablespoons of flour, he will need **12 tablespoons of butter**.