November 16, 2007

how many grains of rice in a cup?


[This post was followed up on with a correction. There are not 1,000 grains of rice in a cup, folks. The site I referred to below corrected itself and so did I. Check it out.]

Quick answer: approximately 1,000.

Why do I now know this, or want to know this?

I was turned on to a new site by a co-worker: FreeRice.com. Do you want to feed the hungry but you've only got a few free minutes? Or are you just bored? Well, here's a solution to both problems.

Essentially, FreeRice.com is a way to feed hungry people in the guise of a nifty online vocabulary quiz. For every word you get (or guess) right, 10 grains of rice (paid for by advertisers on the site) are donated to the United Nations World Food Program. When I checked the totals today there had been 1,897,053,670 grains of rice donated. That's about 1,897,053 cups of rice. Not bad.

Check it out. You'll look up and wonder where the last 10 minutes have gone but in the meantime (depending on how good your vocabulary is) you've fed one person (or more) a meal of rice and maybe improved your vocabulary in the process.

9 comments:

Jen K said...

ROFLMAO...check out my LiveJournal. Snicker, snicker....

Jennifer said...

I saw. And your post reminded me to go play. I only wish I could have used this post to echo ALL of your thoughts. Know what I mean?

Chelsea said...

Thanks for the info -- I was playing the game, feeling virtuous and smarter when it struck me -- was 500 grains of rice worth anything? Apparently it's worth a half of cup.

Jennifer said...

Yes. And a half a cup of dry rice makes a nice bowl full of cooked rice. Thanks for commenting. I love to know that people other than my friends—who are somewhat obligated—are reading my blather.

Anonymous said...

Um... 100 grains of rice = LESS than HALF a TEAspoon.

Your estimate of 1000 in a cup is completely incorrect.

Anonymous said...

Your individual contribution may seem small, but all together, it does help. There's been about 1,196,254 cups of rice donated so far. That's pretty good.

Anonymous said...

You must have made a typo! The linked site says approx. 7200 grains/cup. I understand that you must have rounded this number to 7000 then written a typo of 1000. Anyway - what level did you guys get up to? Me - a 16 year old - 27. Have a wonderful day.

Jennifer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jennifer said...

This post was followed up on with a correction. There are not 1,000 grains of rice in a cup, folks. The site I referred to corrected itself and so did I. Check it out.