Final answer:
The student's problem involves calculating the number of pancake batches possible with given ingredients, emphasizing the limited ingredient—eggs. It's a mathematics exercise involving ratios and proportion. Each batch requires 2 cups of mix, 1 egg, and ½ cup of milk.
Step-by-step explanation:
To answer the question regarding the shelf life of omelette batter, we need to clarify that the topic at hand actually addresses a mathematics problem for calculating the number of batches that can be made with available ingredients, not the shelf life of omelette batter. In this scenario, the limitation is based on the number of eggs you have to make pancake batter, not omelette batter.
Using the final piece of provided information, it is apparent that the recipe for a batch of pancakes requires 2 cups of pancake mix, 1 egg, and ½ cup of milk. If you have 9 cups of pancake mix, you simply divide the amount of mix you have by the amount required for one batch. 9 cups of mix ÷ 2 cups per batch = 4.5 batches. However, we cannot make half a batch realistically, so we round down to 4 full batches. Therefore, you would require 4 eggs and 2 cups of milk (4 × ½ cup).
If you only started with 1 egg, you would only be able to make 1 batch of pancakes with the provided ingredients; unlike the example where 2 eggs were limiting, here, 1 egg is limiting.