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Teaching Math In 1860: A logger sells a wagonload of lumber for three one dollar gold coins. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is the gold in the coins worth in 1850 dollars, and what would his profit be in today’s gold coin valuation?
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 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 & 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 & squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers.
Teaching Math in 2000: 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 2010: 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 & medical insurance. The contracted logger charges $50 an hour. Was outsourcing a good move?
Teaching Math in 2019: 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, goes postal, and mows down 16 executives, 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?
In 1570 a Portuguese Captain buys a 100 slaves from a North African Muslim for a trunk of firearms. If the slaves fetch one silver coin each when sold to the offshore colonial boat, what does the colonial boat’s descendants owe in reparations?