Jokes & Humor - Teaching Math through the years.

Teaching Math: 1950–2012 and beyond....

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 1960:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80.
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" of profits?

Teaching Math in 1980:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his 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 and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees?
Remember, There are no wrong answers!

Teaching Math in 2000:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $120.
How does Arthur Andersen determine that his profit margin is $60?

Teaching Math in 2005:
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 layoffs.

Teaching Math in 2012:
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 and medical insurance. The contracted logger charges $50 an hour. Was outsourcing a good move?

Teaching Math in 2025:
Un maderero vende un camión de madera de construcción para $100. Su
coste de producción es 4/5 del precio. ¿Cuál es su beneficio?

6. Teaching Maths In 2009
A logger is arrested for trying to cut down a tree in case it may be offensive to Muslims or other religious groups not consulted in the application for the felling license. He is also fined a $100 as his chainsaw is in breach of Health and Safety legislation as it deemed too dangerous and could cut something. He has used the chainsaw for over 20 years without incident however he does not have the correct certificate of competence and is therefore considered to be a recidivist and habitual criminal. His DNA is sampled and his details circulated throughout all government agencies. He protests and is taken to court and fined another $100 because he is such an easy target.

When he is released he returns to find Gypsies have cut down half his wood to build a camp on his land. He tries to throw them off but is arrested, prosecuted for harassing an ethnic minority, imprisoned and fined a further $100. While he is in jail again the Gypsies cut down the rest of his wood and sell it on the black market for $100 cash. They also have a departure BBQ of squirrel and pheasant and leave behind several tonnes of rubbish and asbestos sheeting.

The forester on release is warned that failure to clear the fly tipped rubbish immediately at his own cost is an offence. He complains and is arrested for environmental pollution, breach of the peace and invoiced $12,000 for safe disposal costs by a regulated government contractor.

Your assignment: How many times is the logger going to have to be arrested and fined before he realizes that he is never going to make $20 profit by hard work, give up, sign onto the welfare and live off the state for the rest of his life?


7. Teaching Math In 2010
A logger doesn’t sell a lorry load of timber because he can’t get a loan to buy a new lorry because his bank has spent all his and their money on a derivative of securitized debt related to sub-prime mortgages in Florida and lost the lot, with only some government money left to pay a few million-dollar bonuses to their senior directors and the traders who made the biggest losses.

The logger struggles to pay the $1,200 road tax on his old lorry. However, as it was built in the 1970s it no longer meets the emissions regulations and he is forced to scrap it.

Some Bulgarian loggers buy the lorry from the scrap merchant and put it back on the road. They undercut everyone on price for haulage and send their cash back home, while claiming unemployment for themselves and their relatives. If questioned they speak no English and it is easier to deport them at the governments expense. Following their holiday back home they return to the US with different names and fresh girls and start again. The logger protests, is accused of being a bigoted racist and as his name is on the side of his old lorry he is forced to pay $1,500 registration fees as a gang master.

The Government borrows more money to pay more to the bankers as bonuses are not cheap. The congressment feel they are missing out and claim the difference on expenses and allowances.
You do the maths.

Math 2012: A Logger object is used to log messages for a specific system or application component. Each Logger keeps track of a "parent" Logger, which is its nearest existing ancestor in the Logger namespace. If a Logger is called "a.b.c.d", and a Logger called "a.b" has been created but no logger "a.b.c" exists, then a call of getParent on the Logger "a.b.c.d" will return what?

Somebody ALWAYS has to bring this up. I served my time OK?

public void test(TestHarness h)
{ Logger abcde = Logger.getLogger("a.b.c.d.e");
Logger abc = Logger.getLogger("a.b.c");
Logger ab = Logger.getLogger("a.b");
Logger a = Logger.getLogger("a");
Logger ax = Logger.getLogger("a.x");
Logger axy = Logger.getLogger("a.x.y");
Logger axyzw = Logger.getLogger("a.x.y.z.w");