"But it doesn't come out even!"

This is another journal problem that can puzzle the kids because it doesn't come out even. Today I asked my students to consider this problem:
You invite 10 friends over for a party. You want to serve juice. You want enough for each person to have 1 cup. The extra special juice you want to buy (raspberry razzle-dazzle kiwi!) only comes in quarts. (At this point I asked the students to remember how many cups are in a quart and one of the students supplied 4.) How many quarts do you need to buy? Prove your answer.

Quite a few asked for help. For each I asked leading questions until they came up with an answer and a way to express their understanding of it. Some included themselves in the planning and some did not. One kept trying to adjust the number of people so that every cup was accounted for: "well my parents could come, or maybe I'll have one go out and one stay." That extra cup tends to bother them a lot and I don't think it is in the name of "waste not want not." For them division should be neat and tidy. We'll share our solutions soon. I hope problems like this help them reach some peace with the idea that math can be messy!