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Math Problems for Today’s World
Finally, math you can use.
I did ok in math when I was in school, though I never particularly liked it. One of the common complaints I heard about math, and other subjects for that matter was, “We’ll never use this stuff.”
In addition, when it came to math, I especially didn’t like “story problems.” Those were problems where you try to make practical application of math. Well, a lot has changed since I went to school, but in order to show practical application of math in today’s world, I decided to break out some modern story problems. As you will see, you need to know more than just math to make this work.
An NBA player with a long-term contract decides he likes the strip clubs in another NBA city better than the ones he frequents in his hometown. How many games will he have to miss with a bogus injury to get his team to trade him?
Boy, lots of variables in this one. How good is the player? How big is his contract? For a mega-star, it seems like about 10 games ought to do it.
Having said that, the upcoming NBA collective bargaining agreement will probably impact that. Boy, there’s always new math to keep up with.
