Have You Seen This NEW Version?

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Just received this Email from my niece who is a math major at Texas A & M. I have heard variations of this through the years, but never one that included Y2K!! Maybe word IS getting around.....

Teaching Math 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 Math 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 Math 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 Math 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 Math 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 Math 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 Math in 1997: A company outsources 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 Math 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? > >> > > >> >Suggested addition: Teaching Math 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, 01/01/2000?

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), October 02, 1998

Answers

Teaching Math in 2000: A logger sells a wagonload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit? And class, paper and pencil only because not everyone has a solar calculator.

-- Beltway Buddy (buddy@bellatlantic.net), October 02, 1998.

Dang, they actually teaching math at A&M now?

With calculators even!

Heck, when I started there, we had to use slide rules, walking barefoot twelve miles in the snow - uphill both both ways.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 02, 1998.


Uh, Jean, don't buy that story from your dad. It rarely snows in College Station. Like once every 5 years. And when it does it is about 1/4 of an inch and melts when it hits the ground.

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), October 02, 1998.

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