Here I am, back again, (not exactly "in a flash" as promised) with
the measurements of a "stick" of butter ...
Surprise! The measurements are simple, rounded metric sizes!
The quarter pound "stick" of butter is 120 mm in length and its cross
section is square with each side being 30 mm. That would mean that a
full pound, consisting of 4 sticks, stacked two on top of two (the
usual way it is sold in the US) would be a block of butter 120 mm
long with a square cross section with 60 mm sides.
Now comes the tricky part:
How big would a block of butter be if it had a mass 500 grams instead
of one pound?
It turns out that one possibility is a half kilogram of butter in a
132 mm x 60 mm x 60 mm "brick". This particular shape could be
divided into 5 slabs, each about 26 mm thick. Each of these slabs
would be 100 grams.
There are, of course, other possible arrangements, but this is what
one such arrangement might look like. You may check my arithmetic if
you like but, even if wrong, it would just change the numbers a bit.
The basic idea is that it can be done if we (and "they") want to do it.
If you want to see all the arithmetic that led me to this conclusion,
read on. Otherwise, quit now!
Bill Hooper
75 kg body mass*
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
* in a package about 1810 mm high by about 1050 mm in circumference
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First, the size (volume) of the one pound block of butter is simply
120 mm x 60 mm x 60 mm
or
432 000 mm^3
From the usual relation that 1 lb = 453.6 g (*), and using
proportions, we can find that,
if 453.6 grams (1 lb) had a
volume of 432 000 mm^3
then 500 grams would have a
volume of 476 190 mm^3
Now a number like 476 190 is not going to be easy to factor into
three simple values for length, width and height, but it is possible,
at least approximately. One could make the 500 g block of butter to
be 132 mm long with a square cross section with 60 mm on a side.
(This is a volume
of 475 200 mm^3 which I think is close enough. The difference is 990
mm^3 which is just under 1 cm^3.) If this is packaged in 5 slabs of
equal thickness (cut across the 132 mm length), these slabs would be
26.5 mm thick (each with a square cross section of 60 mm x 60 mm.
Then each slab would have a mass of 100 grams.
So, instead of
a pound of butter sold in four "sticks" of one quarter pound each,
we would have
a half kilogram of butter in five slabs of 100 grams each.
It would be in a package whose dimensions would be 132 mm x 60 mm x
60 mm (compared to the present pound package which is 112 mm x 60 mm
x 60 mm).
(I repeat my statement that, of course, there are many other
convenient arrangements that could be found.)
(*) My statement above that "1 lb = 453.6 g" means, of course, that a
block of butter that has a weight of 1 lb under normal earth gravity
will have a mass of 453.6 grams. Take it anywhere else, where gravity
may not be "normal" and it will still have a mass of 453.6 g, but it
won't weigh a pound any more.
