need help with a math Q.

[harley1231]

I have a 1oz fo sample and I would like to make soy candle containing 9% FO.

Can someone help the math challenged newbie and tell me how much wax I should use? Please?

[Hope]

10 oz. = 9.09%

[harley1231]

Thank-You Thank-You!!!!

[Georgia]

not sure about Hope's math...

11 ounces of wax at 9% FO would be

11 * .09 = .99 FO

11 * .91 = 10.01 Wax

[harley1231]

I'm even more confused.:undecided

anyone else wanna give it a try or vote between the two ?

[Hope]

I'm even more confused.:undecided

anyone else wanna give it a try or vote between the two ?

The difference between our answers is just over a quarter of a gram. I answered with a quick calc. that has a rounded amount for the wax needed w/o showing work.

1 oz. FO / 11 oz. candle = 9.090909% FO/candle

Georgia's shown method is feasible if you wanted the work shown and wanted the gram amount. It's good for precision. Also good for confusing a mathmatically challenged newbie. So, 10.00 oz or 10.01 oz wax...

[Stella1952]

To figure this accurately, we'd need to know what size candle you want to make! As in 9% of WHAT?

Here's a link to a percentage calculator...

http://www.onlineconversion.com/percentcalc.htm

According to it, 9% of 16 ounces (1 pound) is 1.44 ounces. So 16 oz. minus 1.44 = 14.56 oz. of wax required for a 1 pound candle with 9% FO, assuming the volume = the weight.

HTH

[Georgia]

Didn't mean to confuse you, Harley. And Hope, I did read your answer wrong...my apologies. But if you don't show her how you got the answer she will never be able to figure it out again.

Stella, the calculator is good, but all she needs to know is what percentage of FO she needs. Her candle is 100%. If 9% is FO, then 91% is wax. If 1 ounce is 9% then 10.1 ounces is 91%. If she knew whe wanted to make an 8 ounce candle, the calc would be great - .71 FO and 7.28 wax; but she wanted to use an ounce of FO and needed to know how much wax to add.

[Stella1952]

she wanted to use an ounce of FO and needed to know how much wax to add.

Thanks, Georgia! You are so correct - I missed the thrust of the question! Glad you made things mo' clear! There's NOTHING that confuses me more than math questions... 'course READING does help...:D

BTW, the calculator was useless for the problem at hand...

[geekrunner]

Most of the time we need to know how much FO to use in a given quantity of wax. The formula would be:

(amount of wax) x (fragrance oil percentage) = amount of FO

So for 16 oz wax at 9%, it would be (16) x (0.09) = 1.44 oz FO.

Then subtract the 1.44 oz from the 16 oz total, and you would need 14.56 oz wax, 1.44 oz FO to make a 16 oz candle at 9% load.

In this case, we need to know how much wax to use with a given quantity of FO. So we just need to tweak the formula:

(amount of FO) / (FO percentage) = amount of wax needed

So for 1 oz of FO and a 9% load, it would be (1) / (0.09) = 11.11 oz total wax and FO to make 9% load.

So take 10.1 oz wax, add 1 oz FO and you have a candle with a 9% load.

Hope I didn't make it more confusing. geek

[Meridith]

Most excellent explaination there Geek. I couldn't have said it better if I tried.

[topofmurrayhill]

The only problem with geek's explanation is that part 1 is not really a given quantity of wax.

If you need to add FO to a certain quantity of wax, it's easiest to use one of the standard ratios to approximate it, such as 16 oz wax + 1.5 oz FO for 9%. That's actually 8.57% but close enough.

[topofmurrayhill]

Oh wait, I just thought of a way to do it using geek's basic approach.

You want to add FO to 1 lb wax and get a 9% concentration. That means 16 oz will be 91% of the mixture and the rest will be FO.

(wax amount) / (wax percentage) = total mixture

16 / .91 = 17.58 oz candle mixture

Subtract 16 oz wax from the total mixture and you get 1.58 oz FO that needs to be added.

[Crafty1_AJ]

A 6% fragrance load is approximately 1 oz. of fragrance per pound of wax. Therefore, 9% would be roughly 1.5 oz. of fragrance per pound of wax.

[Hope]

And Hope, I did read your answer wrong...my apologies. But if you don't show her how you got the answer she will never be able to figure it out again.

I just interpreted your response post, "I'm not sure how or what Hope did....". So, no apologies needed, I should've shown the work... but I thought it'd further confuse the situation. It's all good. Oh well, now harley1231 now has a thread chock full o' helpful formulas. You're right, for the record, the formula you used is typically what I do for accuracy (making sure those %'s add up nicely!).

Original Q:

I have a 1oz fo sample and I would like to make soy candle containing 9% FO.

Can someone help the math challenged newbie and tell me how much wax I should use?

Gotta love them story problems!

[CareBear]

I work in metric...

FO-amount = X% times Y-total finished weight

If you have of the numbers you can always figure out the third

1-oz FO = 28.35

9% = 0.09

goes like this

28.35 grams FO = 0.09 times Y-total weight

28.35 grams FO divided by .09 = 315 total weight

315 total weight minus 28.35 grams FO means you need 286.65 grams wax

This gives you a mixture which is 91% wax and 9% FO

[harley1231]

Thank-You ALL for the responses and explanations!! Its funny how some people can grasp one persons explanation of a math problem and not another's. But once one of them made sense to my pea-brain the others were easier to grasp as well!! Geek you should teach elementary math ! I had an ''ahhh-haaa'' moment after reading your response ! Georgia thank you so much for the notes you sent!! I'm going to copy and paste all of the responses and print them out and put them in my new handy-dandy notes folder for later reference! Thanks again everyone!!

[Crafty1_AJ]

The way I've always figured is by using fractions / decimals. One oz. of fo per pound = 1/16 (since there are 16 oz. in a pound). As a decimal, 1/16 = .0625 . Therefore, a ratio of one oz. of fo to one pound of wax = 6.25%. Hope that makes sense. I homeschool and teach my kids math, and it makes sense to us anyway. lol

To figure 9%, you'd just take that 6.25% and add half of that figure to 6.25%. (Increase by half.) So 6.25% + 3.125% = 9.375 or 9 3/8 oz. I generally round down a bit with odd fractions, since I'd rather not risk overloading my wax with fo.

Write those figures down and stash in a safe place; I may not be able to remember this in a few years.

[CareBear]

I'm always stunned that folks come down on someone for their lack of math skills. I think math ability is something that either comes naturally or doesn't. Either you got it or you don't. If you struggle hard enough you will get it anyway, probably, but it may not come easy.

I got the math gene, but I am waaaay behind you all in the creativity department -

[Billie]

My husband loves math so this is what he added.

Percent is some portion of stuff divided by the total amount of stuff. In this case, if you think of percent as the smaller FO part divided by the total amount you have

1/(1+W)=.09 where

1. the one on top is the one oz of FO
   
2. the (1+W) on bottom is the total amount or the one oz of FO plus the amount of wax. We don't know the amount of wax yet so we call it W.
   
3. and the .09 is 9% as a decimal.

When you solve all this junk for W you get 10.11, which is the amount of wax. So as not to bore you to death, I won't explain the "solve all this junk" part. Just use the formula below which is the general case for any amounts and percents you want.

W = (FO - (FO * P) ) / P where

1. W is the oz's of wax you need
   
2. FO is the oz's of fragrance oil
   
3. and P is the percent as a decimal

In this case we would have

W = (1 - (1 * .09)) / .09

W = (1 - .09) / .09

W = .91 / .09

W = 10.1111...

For one more example if you had 2 oz's of FO and you wanted a 7% solution you would have

W = (FO - (FO * P) ) / P

W = (2 - (2 * .07) / .07

W = (2 - .14) / .07

W = 1.86 / .07

W = 26.57 oz's of wax.

[harley1231]

Is your husband an algebra teacher by any chance?

[geekrunner]

My husband loves math so this is what he added.

Percent is some portion of stuff divided by the total amount of stuff. In this case, if you think of percent as the smaller FO part divided by the total amount you have

1/(1+W)=.09 where

1. the one on top is the one oz of FO
   
2. the (1+W) on bottom is the total amount or the one oz of FO plus the amount of wax. We don't know the amount of wax yet so we call it W.
   
3. and the .09 is 9% as a decimal.

When you solve all this junk for W you get 10.11, which is the amount of wax. So as not to bore you to death, I won't explain the "solve all this junk" part. Just use the formula below which is the general case for any amounts and percents you want.

W = (FO - (FO * P) ) / P where

1. W is the oz's of wax you need
   
2. FO is the oz's of fragrance oil
   
3. and P is the percent as a decimal

In this case we would have

W = (1 - (1 * .09)) / .09

W = (1 - .09) / .09

W = .91 / .09

W = 10.1111...

For one more example if you had 2 oz's of FO and you wanted a 7% solution you would have

W = (FO - (FO * P) ) / P

W = (2 - (2 * .07) / .07

W = (2 - .14) / .07

W = 1.86 / .07

W = 26.57 oz's of wax.

There must be something in the water here in Indy, maybe it's all the duck crap in the Canal

geek

[Billie]

He majored in electrical engineering, computers and math. Sometimes he talks in binary. I don't know what he's talking about half the time, but we've gotten along great for 37 years now.

[geekrunner]

He majored in electrical engineering, computers and math. Sometimes he talks in binary. I don't know what he's talking about half the time, but we've gotten along great for 37 years now.

Have him read my signature, he'll get a chuckle out of it, if he hasn't already heard it yet.

geek

[CareBear]

Have him read my signature, he'll get a chuckle out of it, if he hasn't already heard it yet.

geek

geek, even without your CT name I'd have known you for one of us! can't say that I'm a geek myself (ok, I probably am because not only do I get your siggy line, but I think it's funny every time I see it) - but my BF is one!