Tuesday, November 1, 2005

My dog ate my Math homework



I have been tutoring my sister in grade 11 Math on a nightly basis since the beginning of the school year. The amount of time and effort that I spend helping her with Math problems seems like another part-time job. Students in high-school now have a lot tougher curriculum than I had when I was in high-school. Many of the concepts that are taught in Grade 11 subjects were concepts that I would learn in later grades.

The Ontario government unveiled a new curriculum in 1999 by eliminating Grade 13/O.A.C. Students are now required to complete high school in 4 years rather than 5 years. Recent studies show that students are struggling with the new curriculum. Drop-out rates among high school students are on the rise.

Ontario's dropout rate now stands at about 30 per cent, up from 22 per cent before new high school curriculum was implemented in 1999.

I take great pride in being able to solve any High-school Math problem that is asked of me, especially since I am an owner of a BMath degree. However, there are those once in a lifetime occurrences where I am unable to solve a problem. Recently, there was a question I was unable to solve. Here is the question:

Maria produces and sells necklaces. The material for each necklace costs her $4. She has been selling them for $8 and averaging sales $40/week. She has been told that she could charge more but has found that for each $0.50 increase in price, she would lose 4 sales each week. What selling price should she set and what would her profit per week at this price.

I am not here asking for homework help, I do have the answer now and will post it if no one else does. I know of many people who have a BMath degree may feel like I have disgraced the degree. I apologize to everyone who has been offended, but it could of happened to anyone of you.

I am happy to report that I am on a safe road to recovery as I solved all the Math problems (questions involving exponents) that I was asked tonight. Like I said, it was a once in a lifetime occurrence.

9 comments:

Ali said...

Ozair, I can't even solve simple math problems and I too have a BMath degree. I think I suffer from "Fried Brain Syndrome". The sad part is, I need my brain now more than ever!

Ozair said...

Ali, in your Waterloo years, you always complained about not being able to get your school work done, but every single time you were able to pull it off. So, i'm sure once again you will do it, especially since after Thursday (my odds is Eid is Friday), you can drink unlimited coffee. That should be the remedy for FBR (Fried Brain Syndrome).

Ozair said...

Here is the solution:

Profit = (Number of necklaces sold) * (Revenue/necklace)

(Revenue/necklace) = (Selling price/necklace) - (Cost/necklace)
= 8 - 4 = 4

Let x be the number of price increases.
= (40 - 4x) * (4 + 0.5x)
= ....
The maximum value occurs when x = 1. There is one $0.50 increase.

Selling price is $8 + $0.5 = $8.5 and profit is $162.00

Ozair said...

hmm ... my bad, I incorrectly wrote $40/week as the revenue.

It should state:

She has been selling them for $8 and averaging sales 40/week.

I can understand why you were confused with the question. This wouldn't be the first time I have read a question incorrectly when doing Math problems.

Nevertheless, still an impressive solution. I should probably stop boring our non-Math crowd with these posts :)

Ali said...

I think this thread has gotten just a little too nerdy, even for me. Let's not take this math problem so seriously - I'm sure we can do other less taxing things with our time.

Can't wait for the daytime coffee ban to end!

rk said...

Omar is being nerdy ;) in a cute way.
I like Ali's lighter view on things .... like coffee :)
And TEA!!!
thanks
rk

Anonymous said...

wow....:|

Anonymous said...

sorry that was me that said 'wow'

Mi55 Bear said...

Ozair, you will soon see familiar stuff from our 2nd year stat in your sister's grade 12 data management, which equates to finite in my/our time. Remember conditional, binomial, normal and all those wonderful probabilities. That's what these kids doing in their gr 12 high school right now. I find this out when helping out a kid on their course. Scary, but goood .. which means they will be so much more prepared than we were