Math and Agriculture

Under our discussion about math in the environment comes math in agriculture. Have you ever visited a farm? Do you know how much problem-solving a regular farmer must do in a day? In class, we worked through the volume of a grain bin for a poultry farmer. We also checked out if our new pole building would be high enough for our shiny new John Deere combine.

Over the next couple days, you and your partner will have the option to look into two different farming scenarios. The first deals with replacing the bedding for your dairy cows--how much you'll need and the costs and time involved. The second project deals with purchasing and financing some new machinery and then clearing your field for planting.

As you may have noticed in the in-class work, much of the math here is simple geometry. It's not complicated, but it is quite applicable in this field.

Travel project

After using many modes of transport in India over the break (plane, train, automobile, rikshaw, elephant, camel), I thought of our next project: where's the math when we travel? For example, I flew Gulf Air. So the airlines must know something about the number of passengers, how much to charge, the weight of my baggage, how much food to serve, how much fuel will be needed for the trip....I could go on and on.

In class we randomly chose jobs that you would encounter when traveling, such as hotel manager, airline baron, or cruise ship operator. Research will be in the computer lab over the next few class periods. The due date is set for the end of class on Wednesday, January 20th. Assuming you're productive, this shouldn't be a take-home project at all.

Project details can be found here.

Yes, there is a semester test

...if you would even like to call it a test. I'm fresh out of ideas for projects that would only take an hour and a half, but I do have a short test set for us on exam days. It basically covers what we've been discussing over the last few weeks--not the whole semester.

Still in a panic? Here are a few more details.

First post & the gas information

Welcome to the Math Applications blog. I've resisted long enough creating a class blog, and have finally given in because it's extremely useful to distribute information.

The Gas Project:
We've been looking at maps and locations lately, which ties in of course with our theme of Math and Geography. Now we'll dive more into the math by examining the data that one might gather from a road trip. The bigger picture, in the end, is simply 'who uses this stuff?' You'll find out who soon enough.

I have placed MS Excel files here that you'll need.
Gas Data JM1
Gas Data JM2
Gas Data MJ1
Gas Data MJ2
In case you've misplaced your information sheets...
Excel intro formulas (half sheet)
Gas project questions (2 pages)
Be sure to print only what you need! I've made these files longer in order to have a class set. If you only need one, print only one.
For numbers 2 and 3, use $2.77 / gallon. Thanks Max & Jarrah!