check my math?

[james_davis_nicoll]

There have been two parties of about 40 people each. I am going to assume consumption scales linearly with the number of people*. At a guess, the next three parties will look like this: 50 people, 80 people, 80 people for a total of 210 people, or about 2 1/2 times what we've already gone through. We went through six giant (650 gram, I think) bags of chips, and four regular bags of cheeZees so what we need is 12 – 15 big bags of chips and chip equivalents and 10 regular bags of CheeZees, which I think is the same as five big bags. So up to 17 big bags. Which, wow, seems like a lot.

(and then there are special cases like gummy worms, where a fair sized container disappeared in 15 minutes)

* I have been assured that it does not. Sadly, half the people I asked said consumption per person drops off as numbers rise and half said that consumption per person rose.

Comments

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Unhelpfully, I'll wonder what the effect on consumption is from variety as well as quantity. So, for example, if X people consume Y bags of chips if you get a single type of chip, will they also consume Y bags of chips of you get Z different types?

[kiya]

I have observed that when a party of N people go to a Chinese restaurant with the intent to purchase N dishes and share them around, there are fewer leftovers than when N people go to a Chinese restaurant and obtain N dishes with intent to eat them themselves.