Question

Keenan and his brother, Darrell, are arguing over who makes the best spicy dipping sauce for wings. They both use the same amount of spicy buffalo sauce, but Keenan uses more ranch dressing. Whose sauce is spicier?

a. Keenan's sauce is spicier.
b. Darrell's sauce is spicier. Neither.
c. The sauces are equally spicy.

Answer 1

Darrell's sauce is spicier because he uses less ranch dressing than Keenan, which means Darrell's sauce is less diluted and retains more of the spicy buffalo sauce's heat.

Step-by-step explanation:

b. Darrell's sauce is spicier because he uses less ranch dressing to mix with the same amount of spicy buffalo sauce as Keenan. In this scenario, Keenan and Darrell are using the same quantity of spicy buffalo sauce, which is the base ingredient that provides spiciness to the sauce. The difference comes in with the amount of ranch dressing each of them adds. Ranch dressing typically has a cooling effect and dilutes the spiciness of the sauce it is mixed with. Since Keenan uses more ranch dressing, his sauce will become milder or less spicy compared to Darrell's.

By using less ranch dressing, Darrell’s sauce will retain more of the original spicy buffalo sauce’s heat, consequently making his sauce spicier. It can be seen as a simple proportion problem where the amount of spicy component versus non-spicy component determines the overall spice level.