Serena makes 2 1/4 cups of popcorn, using one and 1/2 tablespoons of kernels. She wants to know how many tablespoons of kernels to use to make 6 cups of popcorn, which is a reasonable estimate for the amount of panels. Serena needs to make 6 cups of popcorn.
To find out how many tablespoons of kernels Serena would need to make 6 cups of popcorn, we can set up a proportion based on the amount of kernels used to make 2 1/4 cups of popcorn.
1 1/2 tablespoons of kernels makes 2 1/4 cups of popcorn
Let x be the number of tablespoons of kernels needed to make 6 cups of popcorn.
1 1/2 / 2 1/4 = x / 6
3/2 / 9/4 = x / 6
3/2 * 4/9 = x / 6
(12/9) / 2 = x / 6
4/3 = x / 6
x = 8 tablespoons
Therefore, Serena would need to use 8 tablespoons of kernels to make 6 cups of popcorn.