Mr. Challenge Math

I will be posting a math lesson every week for the next few months. Here is number one:

The incorrect placement of decimals points can be fatal!

A roadside fruit stand near Seattle, Washington, had a sign advertising a low price for apples:

Apples: Only .50 cents each!!

A customer picked out 15 apples, brought them to the counter, handed the clerk a dime and said “keep the change.” The clerk looked confused and said a dime was not enough money to buy 15 apples. He said that the cost for 15 apples would be $7.50. The customer pointed to the sign and insisted that a dime was more than enough to pay for 15 apples. “Your sign clearly states that apples are .50 cents, or a half cent each. Fifteen apples at half a cent each would be 7.5 cents. I am being generous and letting you keep the extra two and a half cents!”

Stores are not the only places that make mistakes with decimal points. Arizona voters passed a ballot initiative that was supposed to have raised the tax on ci******es by 80 cents per pack. The to***co companies fought this tax increase, but were pleasantly surprised when they saw that the ballot language called for an increase of .80 cents per pack. Unfortunately, the people writing the ballot didn’t have a math teacher check the wording before it went to print. Just as in the story about the fruit stand where the clerk thought that .50 cents was the same as .50 dollars, the people who wrote the language for the ballot initiative in Arizona thought that .80 cents was the same as 80 cents. After losing the ballot initiative, the to***co companies were not upset because the ballot language meant the extra tax would only be 8/10 of a cent per pack sold instead of 80 cents.

The misplaced decimal at the fruit stand did not have serious consequences, but the misplaced decimal point that occurred in the Arizona election caused an enormous headache for the state and cost a significant amount of money to correct. Misplaced decimal points can not only cost money, but in some cases they can even be life threatening.

A researcher at Northumbria University (England) decided to conduct a study about the effects of caffeine on exercise. Two students volunteered to take part in the study, but quickly regretted their decision. The experiment called for each participant to receive a dose of .3 grams of caffeine, but because of a misplaced decimal point, they were each given 30 grams of caffeine. Shortly after ingesting the caffeine, both men started vomiting, shaking, and their heartbeats rose to dangerous levels. After being hospitalized, the hospital toxicologist said they could have both easily died from the caffeine overdose.

The researcher intended to give each volunteer a dose of .3 grams of caffeine, which is the equivalent of about three cups of coffee. The 30 grams each participant was given was the equivalent of instantaneously drinking 300 cups of coffee! The two students were actually very lucky because 18 grams of caffeine is considered a fatal dose.

So what ended up happening in these three cases of misplaced decimal points?

Fruit stand: The customer agreed to pay the $7.50 price for 15 apples with the understanding that the clerk would change the sign to read: Apples: 50 cents each.

Arizona ballot mistake: The courts eventually decided to allow the state to collect an 80 cent per pack tax on ci******es because all information leading up to the election talked about 80 cents and not .80 cents.

Caffeine experiment: The two students eventually recovered. After an inquiry, Northumbria University was required to pay a fine of $500,000 for its life-threatening decimal point placement error.

I’m excited to announce that I have published my first novel. I have devoted two years to the project and I would ask my Facebook friends to at least read the back cover description. Please order if you are intrigued. If not, that if fine too. The novel will help you understand how cold cases are being solved through forensic genealogy. There is mystery, romance, a strong female role model, science and of course a little math. It is available on Amazon: In the Shadow of Fear by E.S. Zaccaro

Backcover description:

When Micheala experiences a traumatic, life-altering assault, the trajectory of her life suddenly changes in ways she never thought possible. After being told by police that her attacker’s DNA did not match any in the state or federal databases, Micheala’s steadfast belief in the power of forgiveness abruptly ends and her thoughts turn to vengeance and justice. As she begins a search for the identity of the man who brutalized her, Micheala submits DNA from her assailant’s discarded ci******es to an open-source genealogy site—ci******es that she collected and concealed from law enforcement. A short time later, she is not only provided with the ancestral makeup of the man who assaulted her, but she is also given the names of several of his distant relatives. If she has any hope of finding the identity of the man who upended her life, Micheala must now start the daunting task of reverse engineering an extensive family tree that most likely contains close to a thousand names.
In order for Micheala’s life to again reach equilibrium, and for her to fully heal, the man who attacked her had to be identified and the evil he embodied permanently stopped—either by prison or death. This is what motivated and inspired her. This is what gave her the passion, patience and courage to methodically track down her assailant.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/096799151X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2W6X4R53WKUOB&keywords=zaccaro+in+the+shadow+of+fear&qid=1670162533&sprefix=zaccaro+in+the+shadow+of+fear%2Caps%2C83&sr=8-1

Answers to Wednesday's two questions: #1: Circle and
#2 1/10 of a millimeter

Here are two interesting questions. Answers on Friday.

1) If you have 100 feet of fencing, what shape will make a garden with the largest area?
a) A circle b) A rectangle
c) A square d) It doesn’t matter, they will all have the same area

2) Light and sound are racing across a football field. Light will of course win the 100-yard race. When light crosses the finish line, how far will sound have traveled?

What is your age in Jupiter years? Pluto years? Mine are 5 years old for Jupiter and for Pluto, 3 months old.

Here is a dramatic example that highlights the difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound. Light takes a little more than 8 minutes to travel from the sun to the earth. Sound can not travel in the vacuum of space, but if it could, and assuming the same speed as in normal air, then it would take about 14 years for sound to travel the 93 million miles from the sun to the earth.

Here is an easy way to change Celsius to Fahrenheit. Instead of multiplying 9/5 x C + 32 ——— which of course is no fun, simply double the Celsius temperature and subtract 10%. Then add 32 and you are done!

Example: 100 degrees Celsius
Step 1: 2 x 100 = 200
Step 2: subtract 20 = 180
Step 3: 180 + 32 = 212 F

Example #2: 37 degrees Celsius
Step 1: 2 x 37 = 74
Step 2: subtract 7 = 67 (Yes, you are allowed to round.)
Step 3: 67 + 32 = 99 F

Answer to yesterday's problem is: 6060 legs

Six farmers each have 6 barrels. In each barrel are 6 cats who each have 6 kittens. How many total legs are there? (Don't forget the farmers' legs.)

I will announce the answer tomorrow

When I speak at conferences that include college math professors, scientists, high school math teachers....... 85% - 90% of participants give an incorrect answer. There are no tricks to the problem --- no play on words etc.

Math thought for the day:

If you had a cubic meter made up of cubic millimeters and took all the cubic millimeters and put them in a straight line, how far would it go?

Answer: There are 1,000,000,000 cubic millimeters in a cubic meter. One billion millimeters is equal to approximately 621 miles!

Math thought for the day:

There are more zeros in the number googolplex than there are atoms in the entire universe.

28 years ago I volunteered to teach a twice a week math class for advanced students in my then 6-year-old son Daniel’s 1st grade class. It changed my life. I ended up developing my own curriculum and eventually put it together into a book to see if it would sell. It sold well enough to allow me to switch careers and continue writing math books for the next 25 years. This week things have come full circle because Daniel, who is now 34 years old and a school psychologist, and I co-wrote and published a math book that will help parents and teachers as they nurture the development of mathematical thinking in young children. It is now available on Amazon.

Pathways to Mathematical Understanding — Early Childhood to Middle School

Most parents and teachers know that reading to children is an important part of developing literacy, but unfortunately, when it comes to developing mathematical thinking, these same parents and teachers sometimes feel confused and inadequate about how best to jump-start their young children’s interest in and understanding of numbers. Pathways to Mathematical Understanding — Early Childhood to Middle School contains easy to understand explanations of important number concepts, along with activities and resources to develop them. In other words, this book contains the pathway not only to mathematical excellence, but also a love of math!