PPMCC Wasteful Packaging

Problem:

What Percentage is Product?

We guessed maybe 40% is product.

Plan:

  1. Measure the packaging, width, length and height in cm.
  2. Calculate the volume of the packaging.
  3. Calculate the percentage that is product, and the percentage which is packaging and air.

Measure:

Length = 7cm

Width = 7cm

Heigth = 6.5 cm

Calculate:

V=7*7*6.5

Volume = 318.5 cubic centimeters

Capacity = 318.5 ml.



Percentage of Product = 50/318.5 = 0.1569858 = which rounds to 15.7 percent or roughly 16%

Percentage of air and packaging = (318.5-50)/318.5 = 0.8430 = which is approximately 84%

Conclude:

The packaging and air makes up approximately 84% of the volume of the product.

The product takes up approximately 16% of the volume of the external packaging.

I think this is bad because:

  • The box is not needed, and is wasteful for the environment.
  • The plastic container could be smaller.

Next steps:

  • Measure the external dimensions of the plastic container. (Level 5 of the NZC).
  • Calculate the wasted space in the plastic container.
  • Unfold the box and measure the surface area cardboard used to make it.
  • Write to Nivea to explain the unnecessary packaging which wastes trees and creates rubbish.

The above example is Level 3 & 4 - Calculate the volume of a cuboid.

More suggestions for your PPMCC Project:

  • Prime Climb Measurement
  • Can we create a square prism, a triangular prism, a parallelogram prism, a trapezium prism and a cylinder with the exact same height and volume? Order the shapes by their expected surface area, and compare this with the actual surface areas.
  • Stain Glass Window Creation.