Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 20:42:33 -0700
Mr. Rod Welch
rowelch@ibm.net
The Welch Company
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111 2496
Subject:
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New Math Shows Cultural Evolution
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Rod,
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 birds and squirrels
feel as the logger cut down the forest?
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 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 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?
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, 01/01/00?