It's always a challenge to figure out how much Halloween candy to buy for the trick-or-treaters in your neighborhood. Every year, you either run out too early in the night...or you have bags of leftover candy to gorge yourself on for days. But thanks to Popular Mechanics there's a math formula to help you figure out the perfect number of bags to buy for your unique Trick-or-Treat situation.
But good luck figuring it out.
Photo: Getty Images
The formula is ((T x K x G) + (D x F x S)) / 75
Follow along, kids.
"T" stands for the amount of "time" in hours that you plan to hand out candy.
"K" is the estimated number of "kids" per hour you expect to show up.
"G" stands for "generosity factor" . . . or how many pieces you'll give each kid.
"D" is the number of "days" you'll have it in your house before Halloween. That's to factor in all the candy YOU'LL eat.
"F" is the number of "family" members in your home, because they'll eat some too.
"S" stands for "sneakiness level," or the number of pieces your family will eat each day. Then divide it all by 75, which is the average number of fun size candy bars in a bag.
Got all that?
So if you're handing out candy for three hours to about 70 kids per hour and giving out 3 pieces of candy per kid, thats (3 x 70 x 3) which is 630. Then let's say you have 3 days til Halloween and there are 4 people in your house that eat two pieces of candy per day. That's (3 x 4 x 2) which is 24. Now you take the whole shebang...630+24...and divide it by 75 (the number of pieces of candy in a standard bag), and that comes to NINE bags of candy to get through the holiday.
So, super simple right?
Actually, you know what, Halloween isn't made for math. Buy extra candy and just eat it.