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The Challenge:The following Challenge was submitted Ralph GouldsmithA.K.A. "Pilot". Ralph and his wife live in Claxton, Georgia and both drive a "big truck" back and forth across the United States. He found this really "Cool" problem in a magazine called, Women In Trucking. Give it a try. It's full of math that we do in school every day.
Teachers, click on the big blue truck above and visit a favorite site of Ralph's called Trucker Buddy. This site allows teachers and their students to adopt a long haul trucker in a unique writing program. Mister Goodmath sends the "Pilot" a great big THANKS.
Neil is an owner / operator and running his truck costs him 61 cents per mile. Any money left over, he gets to keep. Last year, Neil drove 131,432 total miles, of which 15,114 were empty, and the rest were loaded. He averaged 88 cents for every loaded mile and 82 cents for every empty one.
2.What was the total income of Neil's operation?
3. How much money was Neil able to keep for himself?
4. What was his average weekly profit?
5. What was his average weekly mileage?
6. What was his average profit per mile?
The Solution:
Should
you decide to ponder the problem and accept the challenge, communicate
your solution to Mister Goodmath at "rooneym@mistergoodmath.org".
Be sure when you e-mail Mister Goodmath that you include the following
information. What was your solution (how did you get your answer)? What
is your first and last name? What is your teacher's name.Great solutions
will be featured on T.V. during WAVE morning announcements.
The Hint:
"Empty miles" means that Neil was not hauling any cargo. Loaded miles means that his trailor was full.
Here's a great problem where Mister Goodmath expects
you to use a calculator to answer
most of the questions about Neil's operation. Don't try this one with paper
and pencil.
