Sheldon Cooper would be proud.

It all started when we decided to take our lunch break from our respective work today.  We had purchased 4 empanadas (a delicious pastry filled with cheese, veggies, meat or a combo of these) for lunch.  In my mind I had assumed that the rules of sharing indicated that we should each get two.  Dan, however felt that 'since he is bigger than me' he should get three and I should get 1.

Some flexing of our Jr. High Algebra skills led us to the following equation which should forever change meals at the James household:

Let x= the total amount of food to be consumed

Let y= Dan's share of the food

Let z = Becky's share of the food

So x= y + z

Becky weighs 70% of what Dan weighs, so, assuming this means that I am entitled to 70% of Dan's share of the food, z = 0.70y.  Substituting this into the equation, we now have:

x= y + 0.70y or,       x = 1.70y

So,  if we have 4 empanadas, Dan's share is 4/1.7 or 2.35 empanadas.  Beckys share is 0.7*2.35 or 1.65 empanadas.

Wow...vacations are wonderful.

Assumptions made:

1. We don't have too much food

2. Neither of us is any fatter than the other (otherwise they should be taking less than their fair share!)

3. Gender does not affect calorie requirements