Search Us Circus
3 Ring Boulevard
Barnum, PU 54321
September 27, 1999
Calculus Students
Franklin & Marshall College
Lancaster, PA 17604-3003
Dear Calculus Students:
On behalf of Majestica's Search Us Circus, I thank you wholeheartedly for your help with the titanium wire. We are very pleased to know that our wire is exactly what we paid for, and of course even more pleased to have a vendor we trust despite the slippery and treacherous nature of the circus business. Hooray for you! I knew you could help me!
Indeed, as promised, we have bought from our vendor a huge glass bowl, large enough to hold 2112 gallons. For the delight and entertainment of our circus-going fans, we will soon have an amazing--even a stupendous--new act. Lead Head McCann, the only human being ever to dive headfirst from the top of the Smucker's factory into a vat of peanut butter, will leap from a giant statue of Bill Cosby into the bowl full of Lime Jello! Because the bowl is made of clear glass, his landing and consequent submersion in the jello will be fully visible to the audience. Imagine to yourself the crowds we can draw to our circus with a stunt like that!
We had a small mishap recently with our jello bowl, actually. Snavely Bravely, our wild animal tamer (who once stopped a rhinoceros charge with his bare hands!) wheeled the bowl full of jello into the new chiller last week. Unfortunately, Dick Dasterdly (who can lift his weight in lead while dancing the mazurka!) didn't see him in there and locked the door after him. Snavely held out for several hours due to the warmth of the lime jello, but as the temperatures slowly dropped and as the jello chilled, he grew colder and colder. Our lovely Electra of titanium wire fame noticed that he was missing from practice, and she found him in the nick of time. He suffered a mild bout of hypothermia, but thanks to the local hospital he's just fine now. The show must go on!
Snavely's camaraderie with the bowl of jello did teach us one important lesson, however. It takes a lot of energy to cool 2112 gallons of warm jello-y liquid! I had no idea how long it takes; I guess that's a lot of jello! Our electricity usage went through the roof that afternoon, especially at first while the mix was still warm. Once the mix cooled down below room temperatures, the cooler didn't have to work so hard.
Electra, who has a high regard for your problem-solving abilities after your last insightful assistance, suggested I ask for your educated opinion on the subject. We have decided that in order to lower our energy usage, we should let the jello cool in the open air of the circus tent during the morning, and then place it in the chiller 3 hours before the show begins. If you have made jello at home, you know that this means that in the morning, we mix the powder in boiling water and stir it for at least 5 minutes until the powder has dissolved. That "at least" is important, because we add an equal amount of ice water sometime after the mix is dissolved, but sometime before the bowl goes into the chiller. Electra wants to know whether we should add the ice water right away, during the middle of the day, or right before we put the bowl in the chiller.
Snavely understandably doesn't want to be anywhere near cold water, so he says to add it at the last possible moment. Lead Head says that if he's going to have to dive into it, he wants the cold water in there as soon as possible, because that's how it'd cool the fastest. I myself can't see that it would make any difference, but out of deference to Lead Head I'll probably just add the ice water right after the powder dissolves. Still, I promised Electra I would ask. I thank you again for your past--and your future--assistance. Your tickets are in the mail!
Yours most sincerely,
Matilda
Matilda Majestica
Owner, Majestica's Search Us
Circus