A silly question. Would you count the grains of salt in a salt shaker?
Asked by
AmWiser (
14947
)
November 12th, 2010
So I’m in the kitchen filling the salt shaker and my husband comes in and says, “If I gave you a dollar to count each grain of salt in the shaker, would you?” He goes on to say he would give me a week to count it. Of course I asked him where would he come into the possession of 1 million dollars, because that’s how many grains of salt I estimate to be in our salt shaker.
My question to you is would you attempt to count the grains of salt in a salt shaker for $1 a grain? You would have a week to count and the actual number of grains is already verified and locked in a safe.
And one last rule, You can have no help with your counting from anyone. Do you think you could do it? Moreover, would you do it?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
23 Answers
Heck yeah. Do I have to be right to claim my money? Because if there is any chance that I can’t collect at the end of the week, I take back my “heck yeah.”
Do you have to count every grain to get any money? Or can you count, say, 1000 grains and then stop to get $1000?
Even if you counted 24/7, you’ll never count to 1 million in a week. So if the deal is that you have to count every grain to get any money, you’ll lose.
You just count a small amount and multiply by the volume
I suspect the deal is that she has to count every grain…
@TheOnlyNeffie yes you have to be right to collect your money:D
@HungryGuy no you can’t count a 1000 grains, then collect $1000 XD
@talljasperman could it possibly be that easy with salt grains?:\
Most likely. I have too much time on my hands, so what better way to kill time than to count grains of salt?
HA! I was going to answer before I saw the details – “How much you gonna pay me?” ;-)
So…since you answered…yeah. That sounds good.
For $100 I’ll lend you my Mettler lab balance.
Here, I’ll measure for you…. counting 10 grains… weighing… 0.001538g for 10. So one grain is 0.0001538g. I’ll let you weigh how much salt it takes to fill your shaker.
It takes 75.07g to fill mine to the bottom of the treads. 75.07/0.0001538 =488,101 grains. I’d say you made a pretty darn good guess!
I’m such a tool!
@worriedguy nooo guessing. Is that Mettler lab balance accurate?
@BarnacleBill the actual number has already been verified and locked away in a safe.
I would renegotiate on the wording, though.
“If I gave you a dollar to count each grain of salt in the shaker, would you?”
The language will mean that, in exchange for your labor of counting all the grains of sand, he gives you a dollar. ;-)
@iamthemob yeah, yeah. The question was kicked back for editing once. I should have abandoned it then.XD.. Hopefully others will get the gist of the question, if not, oh well!
@AmWiser Is it accurate?!?! It’s a Mettler! It can separate the fly poop from the pepper!
I use it for all sorts of things. How many sheets of toilet paper are on the roll? How many shots are in the BB gun? 523. Is a ream of paper really 500 sheets? Yes!
How many shots are left in that inhaler? 76. Oh, almost forgot, I also use it for work.
I have another Mettler in a different range that goes up to 150 pounds. I can stand on it, tare it, eat a 6 oz yogurt, get back on and it will read 5.85 oz.
So, yeah, it’s accurate. (I don’t work for Mettler. I just love their products.)
My salt shaker might be different from yours and my salt is Wegmans Iodized salt so that could explain the difference.
@BarnacleBill Those kids were close. They got 7500 in 1.5 grams. I get 9753. Not bad..
@AmWiser yes… you just need a accurate weight scale
@HungryGuy you really dont think you could count to a million in one week? I would do it easily I think.
All right all you math wizzes, Start counting grains of salt for 1 minute. Then multiply that out by the number of grains you can count in an hour, then a day, then a week…
He said he’d give you a dollar to count each grain…NOT that he’d give you a dollar for each grain counted. Given this awareness in meaning the answer should be, “Are you out of your mind?”
Nope. If I already married to him than his money already is my money. He wants to know how much is in that salt shaker than he can count it himself.
I’m taking his credit cards and going shopping as he counts.
@HungryGuy I would imagine would get better/faster at it as time went on.
really though, you could figure out the area of the salt shaker, count a determined area of it and multiply out to figure out how much salt is there.
It’s a pretty easy problem to solve, actually. Find the density of salt, get the average weight of one grain of salt, and you can get the average volume of one grain of salt (information easily “Googlable”). Then take your salt shaker and measure the volume. Divide that by the volume of one grain of salt and you have the number of grains.
Oops, someone already beat me too it above, sorry.
No, unless my OCD had reached alarming proportions!
I would try it. I would turn of any fans and close any windows and pour all the grain into a bull. I would then get 2 small bulls of water. I’d wet the tip of my finger, dip it in the salt and count what’s on my finger. Then dip it in the second bull so it doesn’t get mixed in with the uncounted salt.
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
