Traveling on the Pennsylvania Turnpike - Part 1

Mr. Billett and I have been traveling in Pennsylvania this month. One place we visited was a famous house designed by Frank Loyd Wright. The house is called Falling Water, because it was built over a creek and waterfall. The house was spectacular.

Before we visited the house, we were staying with Mr. Billett senior, near the city of Reading in Pennsylvania. To have enough time to visit Falling Water and the neighboring area, we spent a couple nights in the town of Somerset. We also visited the city of Pittsburgh on a rainy day.

Pennsylvania's main highway is the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It is a toll road, and not very scenic. On the way there we took smaller, more interesting roads, but on the way home we decided to save time, and take the Turnpike. The toll on the pike is proportional to the distance you travel on it. Each exit is numbered according to its distance from the Western end of the turnpike. (see picture below, click to enlarge it.)

From Pittsburgh (mile 57) to Somerset (mile 110) we paid $3.00 for the toll. The next day we were traveling from Somerset (mile 110) to Reading (mile 286). Your job: figure out about how much the toll would be for that distance.

The Real Mac Pro

On Sunday, December 23, Mr. Billett's 6-year-old G4 stopped working once and for all.

So the next day we went to the Apple store at the Glendale Galleria, and picked up a brand new Mac Pro to replace it. The Apple store was a lot of fun - we tried the iPhone, the new iPod nano, and got expert advice from Josh, a friendly sales associate. Lucky for us, Apple offers an educational discount. The regular price for the Mac Pro is $2499, but with the educators' discount, we paid $2299.

Your job is to figure out about what percentage was our savings. It may seem complicated at first, but proportions, our good old friends, will come to the rescue. Here's how:
Here is another hint to make your job easier: You can round the total price and the sale price to the nearest hundred.

Pea Soup

Yesterday I was cooking pea soup for dinner. I found a great recipe on the internet, I had all the ingredients too. The recipe was for 300 grams of peas. (I found it on a Hungarian cooking website, we use the metric system in Hungary, so we measure weight in grams, not pounds.) When I looked at the package of frozen peas I had at home, it said it has 450 grams of peas. I wanted to use the whole bag, so I had to figure out how much of the other ingredients I should use. I did it, can you? Here are the original ingredients, your job is to figure out how much of each I should use, then email me with your answers and an explanation of how you figured them out. If you decide to comment on this post, tell me something about recipes and math, or the metric system. Good luck.

Pea Soup Ingredients
300 grams peas
3 deciliters milk
30 grams butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 deciliter cream
1 egg yolk

PS: The soup came out delicious, even though it looks a little funny because it's bright green.