A Butterfly You Can Eat

Don’t worry, these are chocolate butterflies, first made by the chef Pioneer Woman. To make one, you first draw a butterfly on wax paper. Then you ooze melted chocolate along the lines of the design. Finally, Hannah at We Lived Happily Ever After thought of drying the butterfly on top of a book, to give it curved wings. The question is, do you have enough chocolate to make these for everyone who wants one?

Wee ones: Butterflies fly high. What’s the tallest spot in your room where a butterfly could land? (not including the ceiling)

Little kids: If you’ve made 1 chocolate butterfly, how many more butterflies do you need to top 6 cupcakes total?  Bonus: If each butterfly has 2 wings, how many wings do those new butterflies have?

Big kids: If you place a gooey butterfly on the book at 1:50 pm, and it takes 10 minutes to harden, when is it done?  Bonus: If each butterfly needs 3 squares of chocolate and you have 34 squares, how many butterflies can you make?

The sky’s the limit: If each butterfly wing has 3 veins (sticks) coming from the center, and each of those splits into 3 smaller veins, and each of THOSE splits into 3, how many vein pieces do you draw in chocolate for the whole butterfly? (Each set of 3 counts as new, different pieces from the one that split.)

Answers:
Wee ones: Spots might include curtains, a bedpost, or the top of a lamp.

Little kids: 5 more butterflies.  Bonus: 10 wings.

Big kids: At 2:00 pm.  Bonus: 11 full butterflies, since that will use 33 squares; you’ll have fewer than 3 squares left.

The sky’s the limit: 78 veins. On each side you make 3 veins, which split into 9 more in total, which then split into 27. That gives you 3+9+27, or 39 on each side. Then 39 x 2 gives you 78 total.