Guessing jar theories?

[toughbuff1]

Does anyone have any? A friend of mine was asking for my help to win a jar full of candy corn if we can guess closest to the number. She says she just wants the jar, and I can get all of the candy corn, so I have a vested interest. Anyway, does anyone have any ideas? The jar is shaped kind of like a sphere, but with the bottom flat and the top lopped off if that makes any sense.

[Pacer]

If you can measure the jar... figure out an approximate volume... then go home and pour some in a bowl... figure out the packing factor by dividing the number of corn by the volume they take up in the bowl... multiply that packing factor by the volume you approximated for the actual jar...

Step 3, profit.

[hughgs]

Does anyone have any? A friend of mine was asking for my help to win a jar full of candy corn if we can guess closest to the number. She says she just wants the jar, and I can get all of the candy corn, so I have a vested interest. Anyway, does anyone have any ideas? The jar is shaped kind of like a sphere, but with the bottom flat and the top lopped off if that makes any sense.

Count the number of items along the longest diameter. Divide by 6.28 to get some sort of radius measure. Cube the radius and multiply by 4/3(pi) to get the approximate number in a full, unaltered spherical jar. Estimate the percentage of the sphere that's removed and lower the approximation appropriately.

[2535Miles]

Count the number of items along the longest diameter. Divide by 6.28 to get some sort of radius measure. Cube the radius and multiply by 4/3(pi) to get the approximate number in a full, unaltered spherical jar. Estimate the percentage of the sphere that's removed and lower the approximation appropriately.

or call Rain Man. Seriously though, cool. I'm gonna try this, all I need is a big ol jar of candy corn.

[Wander]

Be on the lookout for the dreaded Fake Candy Jar.

I did this once for a field day type competition for kids. Fill up a candy jar with hundreds of say jawbreakers and then ask "How many gumballs are in this jar?" with the correct answer of course being zero. A couple kids actually saw through the trick, but the vast majority were completely fooled.

Don't let it happen to you.

[sue71, esq]

Be on the lookout for the dreaded Fake Candy Jar.

I did this once for a field day type competition for kids. Fill up a candy jar with hundreds of say jawbreakers and then ask "How many gumballs are in this jar?" with the correct answer of course being zero. A couple kids actually saw through the trick, but the vast majority were completely fooled.

Don't let it happen to you.

Or how about where they use "filler" instead of filling the entire jar with said object? Or that the inside of the jar is deceptively small compared to the outside... etc...

[weezie]

Be on the lookout for the dreaded Fake Candy Jar.

I did this once for a field day type competition for kids. Fill up a candy jar with hundreds of say jawbreakers and then ask "How many gumballs are in this jar?" with the correct answer of course being zero. A couple kids actually saw through the trick, but the vast majority were completely fooled.

Don't let it happen to you.

Good grief, that is certainly one stinking trick to pull on a bunch of little kids.

[-jk]

Good grief, that is certainly one stinking trick to pull on a bunch of little kids.

For little kids, maybe. For medium kids, a good learning experience. Sort of like the quiz I had in 4th grade: The instructions said to read all the (rather tedious) problems first. The 20th (last) directed us to not answer problems 1-19.

About half the class worked frantically through the problems. The other half had a hard time not laughing. We all learned something.

Personally, I'll plead the fifth.

-jk