How Much Kool-Aid Would It Take to Flavor Lake Superior?

Reddit is one of the most interesting places on the internet. So when I saw someone ask a question about Lake Superior and Kool-Aid, consider my interest piqued because I was more than curious.

The Internet’s Most Random (and Brilliant) Question

From the subreddit community, r/theydidthemath, user Apprehensive_Oven_22 posed a very important question/request to fellow community members:

"How many kool aid packets would it take to make Lake Superior taste like proper kool aid?"

Yes, those individual packets that are meant to make one pitcher's worth of Kool-Aid. And since this is a hypothetical question in the first place, I'm going to imagine them as Black Cherry flavored Kool-Aid packets.

So, just how many packets would it take to turn Lake Superior into Kool-Aid? Someone in the theydidthemath subreddit did, indeed, do the math and then shared their work with the rest of the class.

How Much Kool-Aid Would It Actually Take?

If you follow the instructions on the packet, you need two packets for every gallon of water. Lake Superior holds about 3 quadrillion gallons of water. So the math is easy on that one: 2 X 3 quadrillion = 6 quadrillion packets.

User Ragna_Blade did the math on how much sugar would be needed: 1 cup of sugar for every packet used would equate to 2.62 quadrillion pounds of sugar.

However, user ClammyHandedFreak really brought this whole math problem home when they figured out how much the water level would rise if all that Kool-Aid and sugar was added to Lake Superior. They figured out the volume of the sugar and the Kool-Aid powder, added that volume to the lake and determined that Lake Superior would rise about 31 feet! Which is more than enough to flood the surrounding coastal cities. If you want to see their math, check it out HERE.

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At the end of the day, this is entirely hypothetical. But let's just hope some kind of quirky evil genius doesn't decide to put this plan into action.