Teaching Math in 1950: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His
cost of production is 4/5 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 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 was trained as a COBOL programmer in order to work on
Y2K projects. At 00:01, 01/01/2000 his cell door automatically opened and he
escaped. Should he be allowed to log again? Maybe this should be renamed
"progress" ? ?
Teaching Math in 2000:In order to clear over grown forest, the U.S. Forest
Service sets the forest on fire. A process they call Prescribed Burn. The
fire gets out of control and burns peoples homes and threatens a Nuclear
Development Center. The Tax payer has to pay to fight the fire. Would
logging this area have been a better solution????
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