Promath teaching styles.

[Petr Vicherek <petr@ied.com>]

Interesting tips on how to do (or not to do) the Promath exercises.


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A RECENT HISTORY OF MATHS


 Teaching Maths in 1950: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for
 $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price.  What is his
 profit?


 Teaching Maths in 1960: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for
 $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80.  What is his
 profit?


 Teaching Maths in 1970: A logger exchanges a set "L" of lumber for a
 set "M" of money. The cardinality of set "M" is 100.  Each element is
 worth one dollar.  Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set
 "M".  The set "C", the cost of production, contains 20 fewer points
 than set "M." Represent the set "C" as a subset of set "M" and answer
 the following question:  What is the cardinality of the set "P" for
 profits?


 Teaching Maths in 1980: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for
 $100. Her cost of production is $80 and her profit is $20. Your
 assignment: Underline the number 20.


 Teaching Maths in 1990: By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the
 logger makes $20.  What do you think of this way of making a living?
 Topic for class participation after answering the question:  How did
 the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees?
 There are no wrong answers.


 Teaching Maths in 1996: By laying off 40% of its loggers, a company
 improves its stock price from $80 to $100.  How much capital gain per
 share does the CEO make by exercising his stock options at $80? Assume
 capital gains are no longer taxed, because this encourages investment.


 Teaching Maths in 1997: A company out-sources all of its loggers. The
 firm saves on benefits, and when demand for its product is down, the
 logging work force can easily be cut back.  The average logger
 employed by the company earned $50,000, had three weeks vacation, a
 nice retirement plan and medical insurance.  The contracted logger
 charges $50 an hour.  Was outsourcing a good move?


 Teaching Maths in 1998: A laid-off logger with four kids at home and a
 ridiculous alimony from his first failed marriage comes into the
 logging-company corporate offices and goes postal, mowing down 16
 executives and a couple of secretaries, and gets lucky when he nails a
 politician on the premises collecting his kickback. Was outsourcing
 the loggers a good move for the company?


 Teaching Maths in 1999: A laid-off logger serving time in Folsom for
 blowing away several people is being trained as a COBOL programmer in
 order to work on Y2K projects. What is the probability that the
 automatic cell doors will open on their own as of 00:01, 01/01/00?


--
                                                    Petr Vicherek

Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/