As I told the kids in math this morning, I was very busy last night making quiches for the staff breakfast this morning. That not only explains why I didn't end up doing a blog post yesterday, but it also proposed an interesting question for my math class.
The preparation time for quiche is fifteen minutes, and the baking time is 30 minutes. I asked them how long they thought I expected to be making quiche. Of course, they responded with 45 minutes. So then I asked them why I actually ended up spending 2 hours and 45 minutes last night making quiche. (It's ridiculously easy, just in case you've never made it.)
I got all kinds of answers, and all of them either were, or could have been, factors into what took so long. The chopping, preheating the oven, taking everything out, putting everything away, the fact that I made seven of them, and therefor had to take two baking cycles to complete them all...they all went into the time it took.
This brought me to my next proposed question, which comes from Math Blogger (and high school math teacher) Dan Meyer. Which line should you get into at the grocery store if you are in a hurry?
This led to a great discussion among the class. The check out times would make the line of the carts with fewer items make some people want to get behind the cart with nineteen items, while some people said that the one with only eleven items total made that the faster line. Discussion came up about coupons, chatty cashiers, forgotten items where someone had to run back and get eggs, and an item that just wouldn't ring up.
This stemmed from a conversation where we had calculated how long it would take two competitors to complete a triathlon. We can show who should win on paper, but there are a lot of other things that go into it. Not everything has an exact solution. In fact, very few things in life do. It was kind of fun to go there with the kids this morning, all of whom are very trained to be able to find out an exact answer using mathematics. But as you and I both know, you have to understand that there are always x-factors.
The preparation time for quiche is fifteen minutes, and the baking time is 30 minutes. I asked them how long they thought I expected to be making quiche. Of course, they responded with 45 minutes. So then I asked them why I actually ended up spending 2 hours and 45 minutes last night making quiche. (It's ridiculously easy, just in case you've never made it.)
I got all kinds of answers, and all of them either were, or could have been, factors into what took so long. The chopping, preheating the oven, taking everything out, putting everything away, the fact that I made seven of them, and therefor had to take two baking cycles to complete them all...they all went into the time it took.
This brought me to my next proposed question, which comes from Math Blogger (and high school math teacher) Dan Meyer. Which line should you get into at the grocery store if you are in a hurry?
This led to a great discussion among the class. The check out times would make the line of the carts with fewer items make some people want to get behind the cart with nineteen items, while some people said that the one with only eleven items total made that the faster line. Discussion came up about coupons, chatty cashiers, forgotten items where someone had to run back and get eggs, and an item that just wouldn't ring up.
This stemmed from a conversation where we had calculated how long it would take two competitors to complete a triathlon. We can show who should win on paper, but there are a lot of other things that go into it. Not everything has an exact solution. In fact, very few things in life do. It was kind of fun to go there with the kids this morning, all of whom are very trained to be able to find out an exact answer using mathematics. But as you and I both know, you have to understand that there are always x-factors.
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