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MATHEMATICS IN THE HOME

[Photograph of a woman and a man smiling and showing some documents to a grade school girl and boy. Photo caption: COURTESY, EWING GALLOWAY]

8. Financing Education

For many years the largest and most important expenses in the family budget were housing and transportation. Buying a home or financing a new car usually require putting down thousands of dollars and/or paying large amounts of money for long periods of time. Today, there's a new kind of expense which, for many families, will cost even more money than purchasing either a car or, possibly, a home. We're talking about financing a child's college education.

The day is long past when Johnny and Susie could be sent down the road to the State Normal School where tuition was only a hundred dollars and room and board not much more. In those days, a little financial help from home and a part-time job at school would easily cover the expenses of four years at college. Nowadays the situation is much different. Tuition at many schools runs as high as (and in many cases, well over) a thousand dollars a year. Room, board, and other essential expenses can easily double or triple that mount. At these rates, it's been estimated that a college education today can easily cost $10,000 for each child in the family.

Perhaps you can help Mr. and Mrs. Larkin plan their son's education. Richard is only eight years old now and probably won't enter college before he's eighteen. The local bank offers a special savings fund for future college education. They guarantee an annual interest of 4% compounded annually for at least 10 years from the opening of the account. Or, Mr. Larkin's company will make regular payroll deductions of $50 a month for as long as he wants, with the money being held by the company until Richard enters college. The money draws no interest in this fund, however, Which of these two ways of savings will provide the largest "nest-egg" for Richard's education?

COPYRIGHT, 1970. J. WESTON WALCH, PUBLISHER, PORTLAND, MAINE 04104

APPLICATIONS OF PROBABILITY

[Photograph of a city street flanked by tall buildings and filled with cards, with two pedestrians attempting to cross the street. Photo caption: COURTESY, EWING GALLOWAY]

6. TRAFFIC ENGINEERING

Life was much simpler "back in the good old days." No one knows that better than the modern traffic engineer. Roads and highways throughout the nation have become unbelievably clogged with the steel monsters that pour out of Detroit's automobile factories by the millions each year.

No matter how hard cities, states and the federal government try, they can't build roads fast enough to relieve the perpetual traffic jam in America. Not too long ago, an interesting test was performed in Los Angeles to see how efficient our modern system of transportation is. A traffic engineer found that it took an automobile 14 minutes to travel a certain ten-block distance in Los Angeles. In comparison, a horse and buggy could have traveled the same distance in just over 10 minutes at the turn of the century! Maybe those "good old days" weren't really so bad after all!

One mathematical tool which the traffic engineer has found to be of great help in analyzing the never-ending headache of traffic flow is probability theory. He could apply it, for example, in solving the problem of how long a pedestrian is likely to have to wait in order to cross the street at a busy intersection. Suppose that he knows that the pedestrian can cross only if no car passes for a period of three seconds. If the probability of a car passing during any one second has been found to be 0.7, what is the probability that a pedestrian will have to wait 0, 1, 2 or 3 seconds in order to cross the street?

COPYRIGHT 1970, J. WESTON WALCH, PUBLISHER, PORTLAND, MAINE 04104

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.4 cm (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Learn more at Smarthistory