kitchen table math, the sequel: dimensional analysis word problem

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

dimensional analysis word problem

I love this guy.

Because you never learned dimensional analysis, you have been working at a fast food restaurant for the past 35 years wrapping hamburgers. Each hour you wrap 184 hamburgers. You work 8 hours per day. You work 5 days a week. You get paid every 2 weeks with a salary of $840.34. How many hamburgers will you have to wrap to make your first one million dollars? [You are in a closed loop again. If you can solve the problem, you will have learned dimensional analysis and you can get a better job. But, since you won't be working there any longer, your solution will be wrong. If you can't solve the problem, you can continue working which means the problem is solvable, but you can't solve it. We have decided to overlook this impasse and allow you to solve the problem as if you had continued to wrap hamburgers.]

He's got one about college applications, too:

A Wilton High School senior was applying to college and wondered how many applications she needed to send. Her counselor explained that with the excellent grade she received in chemistry she would probably be accepted to one school out of every three to which she applied. [3 applications = 1 acceptance] She immediately realized that for each application she would have to write 3 essays, [1 application = 3 essays] and each essay would require 2 hours work [1 essay = 2 hours]. Of course writing essays is no simple matter. For each hour of serious essay writing, she would need to expend 500 calories [1 hour = 500 calories] which she could derive from her mother's apple pies [1 pie = 1000 calories]. How many times would she have to clean her room in order to gain acceptance to 10 colleges? Hopefully you didn't skip problem No 1. I'll help you get started.... 10 acceptances [ ] [ ] etc.

2 comments:

Independent George said...

If only I really did expend 500 calories for two hours of writing...

Catherine Johnson said...

Two words, Independent George -

Shangri-La!

(Or is that one?)