Making Relations

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

Question: Can you estimate how many people in the United States will eat a taco on Cinco de Mayo (May 5th)?

Let’s break up the question into smaller pieces. Here are some related questions:

  • What is the population of the United States? (This will give us an upper limit to the answer.)
  • Roughly what fraction of Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Can you guess? See Survey Results (scroll down).
  • Roughly what fraction of those celebrating Cinco de Mayo will eat a taco?

A Possible Prediction:

[US Population] x [fraction celebrating] x [fraction celebrating eating a taco]

What is your answer?


Follow up question: Can you guess how many tacos will be eaten on Cinco de Mayo?