Grandma Knows Best -- Measurement Uncertainty in the Kitchen

Here's an amusing and useful article that explains how to go about calculating the potential inaccuracy (i.e. uncertainty) of any measurement process. If all else fails, you will at least have gained a recipe for some tasty treats!

Acknowledgement
This article by Matthew Watton, Jennifer Kox and Graham Roberts of the Australian accreditation agency, NATA, was originally published in the NATA News magazine in March 2005. It has been re-published with NATA's permission.

Introduction
When Betty Baker planned a birthday party for her six year-old son Tommy, she knew he wanted the party food to include chocolate chip biscuits just like those he had enjoyed at a friend’s party. Including Tommy, there would be nine children at the party. Betty planned to provide two biscuits per child as part of the birthday feast. Fortunately she remembered that her baking folder contained an old recipe from her grandmother simply headed “Giant Chocolate Chip Biscuits (kids love them!)”

But there was no indication of how many biscuits the recipe would make. How could she be sure that she would end up with at least 18 biscuits?

What happened next?
Click the link below to find out.....
How did Betty go about determining the uncertainty of granny's recipe?
And what did granny think of the end result?

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Measurement Uncertainty in the Kitchen