How many people did you bring over?

When you run a resort, expect to have many people around, both coming and going. One of the many joys of being around these multitudes of people is to bake for them, and to hear their stories over the dinner table. Sometimes, however, there can be a great many people to fit around the dinner table and having to plan for how much to bake is crucial. On a couple occasions the dinner table get's really crowded and we have to triple our usual recipes! My favorite, the chocolate brownie pie, is usually small enough to feed a couple people. The recipe is 3 eggs, 1/3rd cup butter, 1 1/2 cup sugar, 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 3 squares of melted Hershey's baking chocolate, 1/3 cup milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 cup chopped nuts.

On one fantastic occasion though, we had to triple the recipe. This then calls for 9 eggs, 1 full cup of butter 4 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 1/4 cup of flour, 1 1/2 tsp of salt, 9 squares of melted Hershey's baking chocolate, 1 cup of milk, 3 tsp of vanilla extract, and 3 cups of chopped nuts. Next you have to separate and divide them evenly into three pie, so that you can serve your guests an even amount.

The key to successful impromptu baking or cooking is a well stocked pantry and being able to go with the flow. You just have to hope that you can have both the former and the ladder at the same time. Most guests are just appreciative that the food part of their vacation has been taken out of the equation.

How deep do I have to go?

Nothing changes the look, or smell, of a beautiful morning on Ottertail Lake then a floating dead fish. One of the more grunt like jobs a resort owner has is to clean up the shore of these odoriferous creatures. It doesn't end there, we still have to pick it up, carry it in the net, cross the street, dig a hole and bury it. On top of the daily burial of the floating fish is the constant buckets of cleaned fish from the fisherman that also require ceremonious departures.

A substantial sized hole must be created to receive the daily fish deposit. The depth of the hole varies by the skill of the digger, but the digger is required to dig a hole that is a minimum of 2 feet deep by 3 feet wide. A seasoned digger can eyeball these dimensions, but there's always a novice that wants to get involved. The size of the fish inevitably causes the hole to be of varying sizes and the handle of the shovel is always a helpful measuring tool.

To give an example, a fish washed up on shore. It was a sturgeon and the biggest I had ever seen. After wrangling it into the net, which took two people, we drug it across the street to give it a fishy funeral. A typical two foot by three foot hole would not suffice and we quickly had to change our tactics. The sturgeon was four and a half feet long, and about six inches wide. We needed a grave to fit the monster, and to determine the size of the grave, we did some quick math. To fit a fish that massive we needed a grave five feet long, 1 foot wide, and three feet deep. After painstakingly shoveling a hole that removed fifteen cubic feet of earth, we had the final resting place of the mammoth fish.

Shapes and sizes of summer

Geometry is everywhere, look at any lake on any given weekend. The body of water is riddled with circular tubes, trapezoid inflatables to pull behind a boat, triangular jetski's, and rectangular pontoons. Naturally these shapes come in a variety of sizes, to accommodate a quantity of people.

A pontoon is a perfect example of a rectangular device. Depending on the people you wish to keep afloat, the size of the pontoon must vary. If you take, for example, a party of 8 people going out onto the lake to enjoy a warm sunny day, the pontoon will naturally have to be bigger than one made for only 4 people.

The beautiful thing about geometry is that we can use this to help us find how big a pontoon needs to be for 8 people. If we take the length of the pontoon times the width of the pontoon, we would then find the approximate area of the boat in which to fit people.

We were good sports all winter.... waited it out, and the Heat is on!

Hard to complain about the weather being hot without a few nasty remarks and snide looks. Okay, I get it, winter was LONG, and cold. But did we have to go from 50 degrees to 90 in such a short span of time? What happened to our spring? I enjoy watching the earth emerge from its long slumber known as winter, a few things budding at a time. A walk through Glendalough State Park to view the splendor of the spring (often with a little snow surrounding them) crocus flowers. Noticing the daily growth of the tree buds, creating the shield of shade we welcome with the heat that follows.

I am usually surprised by the extreme temperatures that winter brings, and always grateful for the respite we sometimes get in mid January from the bitter cold. I now find myself wishing for a tad bit of respite from the humidity and heat. It could be that what I am really wishing for is air conditioning. I can see why most people love the heat of the day, warmth of the lake, and activities and freedom that summer brings with it, but are they going home to air conditioning? Is that why they seem so agreeable to the warmer temperatures?

Ah, yes... the beauty of having both. I find my self wondering what temperatures may be like in different part of the world at this time of year. Do they follow our Fahrenheit gauge system? Many European countries adhere to the Celsius Temperature system when figuring out how hot, or cold it is. I suppose for us Westerners it would feel cooler if we just transposed our number a tad. On a typical 90 degree day in Minnesota, we could do a little temperature math to discover that in Celsius terms that is only 32.2 degrees... hey, I might not pine for that air conditioning if I can just trick my mind a bit.

I have to get it, its on sale... will you take any less for that?

The expression of the "busy days of summer" are living up to their words as of late. Many people believe that once the 4th of July is here.... summer is half over!  When in reality it is just getting started.  The water is finally warm enough for people to get in, the rain has subsided just enough to give everyone a mini break from all the mowing.  What does not seem to get a break is using math in every day life.  I have a part time job at a local gift shop in our area of tourism during the summer months.  Our area swells with people, and all of us that have businesses try to generate the bulk of our income during the small window of time, known as summer.

One of the ways that we as resort owners and my friend who has the gift shop do to promote business is to offer discounted time in a cabin or at stores.  During the early part of the resort season ( May or early June) as well as the latter part ( after Labor Day) we offer discounted rates.  The gift shop owner also offers discounts on merchandise that has been there for a month or two.  If the item started at $35.95 and is discounted by 30%, I am expected to figure out the sale price.  When I am shopping, and come upon a sign that says 30% off, I just guesstimate.  So if the item is $35.95 and I get 30% off... I would just round up the $35.95 to $36.00 and start with 10% off ( 3.60) and do that two more times.  I would finally come to the conclusion that I was about to get over $10.00 off.  Working at the gift shop and at the resort requires me to be a bit more precise when figuring amount with discount for others.

I have found that whatever the discount is, that is what I need to use to get the exact amount off.  The $35.95 item at 30% off in reality would be $35.95 x .30 = $10.785, or 10.79 off of $35.95... making it $25.16.  Some cash registers do this when you are ringing up the sale, but many people want to know what it is prior to the purchase.  I actually like this type of math ( mental math) as it is a good exercise for my brain, and helps me to decide if I REALLY need the item, or just want it because it is on sale.

The Road Trip

ARE WE THERE YET?

We don’t have to travel far to stumble into a math scenario

To Solve the Scenario and answer the question: 

Use Front End Addition!

 We recently traversed highway roads from Western North Dakota to Central Minnesota.  The beautiful, but placid terrain is soothing and was becoming sleep inducing.  We started looking forward to the road signs indicating our miles traveled vs. the miles we still needed to go.  The distance from town to town started to become a guessing game that kept us sharp.  When we left Bismarck it was 96 miles to Jamestown. There were a few smaller towns in between.  So each time we approached a road sign we tried to guess how much closer I was.  The sign might read 86 miles, so naturally we rounded it up to 90, it was when the second digit was under five that we delighted in rounding down. 

Front end addition proved to be useful and a fun tool for “guesstimating” our distances.  Front end addition is also a great way to engage kids with a little mental math.  The guessing game of “how far?”  and the sometimes nagging question “Are we there yet?” instilled some friendly competition within the confines of our metal lounge area; the car. 

Use Front End Addition to calculate miles traveled vs. miles to go!

96+78+46+33 

  90+70+40+30

Front end addition brings about a quicker answer, and the road is more fun along the way.