Helen Thompson - Travel Math

MATH 24/7 TRAVEL MATH HELEN THOMPSONMason Crest

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

Copyright 2014 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-2901-9 ISBN: 978-1-4222-2911-8 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8922-8 Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file with the Library of Congress. www.vestalcreative.com Contents H ow would you define math? Its not as easy as you might think. www.vestalcreative.com Contents H ow would you define math? Its not as easy as you might think.

We know math has to do with numbers. We often think of it as a part, if not the basis, for the sciences, especially natural science, engineering, and medicine. When we think of math, most of us imagine equations and blackboards, formulas and textbooks. But math is actually far bigger than that. Think about examples like Polykleitos, the fifth-century Greek sculptor, who used math to sculpt the perfect male nude. Or remember Leonardo da Vinci? He used geometrywhat he called golden rectangles, rectangles whose dimensions were visually pleasingto create his famous Mona Lisa. Math and art? Yes, exactly! Mathematics is essential to disciplines as diverse as medicine and the fine arts.

Counting, calculation, measurement, and the study of shapes and the motions of physical objects: all these are woven into music and games, science and architecture. In fact, math developed out of everyday necessity, as a way to talk about the world around us. Math gives us a way to perceive the real worldand then allows us to manipulate the world in practical ways. For example, as soon as two people come together to build something, they need a language to talk about the materials theyll be working with and the object that they would like to build. Imagine trying to build somethinganythingwithout a ruler, without any way of telling someone else a measurement, or even without being able to communicate what the thing will look like when its done! The truth is: We use math every day, even when we dont realize that we are. We use it when we go shopping, when we play sports, when we look at the clock, when we travel, when we run a business, and even when we cook.

Whether we realize it or not, we use it in countless other ordinary activities as well. Math is pretty much a 24/7 activity! And yet lots of us think we hate math. We imagine math as the practice of dusty, old college professors writing out calculations endlessly. We have this idea in our heads that math has nothing to do with real life, and we tell ourselves that its something we dont need to worry about outside of math class, out there in the real world. But heres the reality: Math helps us do better in many areas of life. Adults who dont understand basic math applications run into lots of problems.

The Federal Reserve, for example, found that people who went bankrupt had an average of one and a half times more debt than their incomein other words, if they were making $24,000 per year, they had an average debt of $36,000. Theres a basic subtraction problem there that should have told them they were in trouble long before they had to file for bankruptcy! As an adult, your careerwhatever it iswill depend in part on your ability to calculate mathematically. Without math skills, you wont be able to become a scientist or a nurse, an engineer or a computer specialist. You wont be able to get a business degreeor work as a waitress, a construction worker, or at a checkout counter. Every kind of sport requires math too. From scoring to strategy, you need to understand mathso whether you want to watch a football game on television or become a first-class athlete yourself, math skills will improve your experience.

And then theres the world of computers. All businesses todayfrom farmers to factories, from restaurants to hair salonshave at least one computer. Gigabytes, data, spreadsheets, and programming all require math comprehension. Sure, there are a lot of automated math functions you can use on your computer, but you need to be able to understand how to use them, and you need to be able to understand the results. This kind of math is a skill we realize we need only when we are in a situation where we are required to do a quick calculation. Then we sometimes end up scratching our heads, not quite sure how to apply the math we learned in school to the real-life scenario.

The books in this series will give you practice applying math to real-life situations, so that you can be ahead of the game. Theyll get you startedbut to learn more, youll have to pay attention in math class and do your homework. Theres no way around that. But for the rest of your lifepretty much 24/7youll be glad you did! TRAVEL MATH MATH 24/7 BANKING MATH BUSINESS MATH COMPUTER MATH CULINARY MATH FASHION MATH GAME MATH SHOPPING MATH SPORTS MATH TIME MATH TRAVEL MATH
BUYING PLANE TICKETS L ees family is taking a vacation. They are going all the way to Australia! Lee has never even been out of the country before, so hes really looking forward to his first international trip. Lee and his family have been saving up money for a long time in order to go on this trip.

Lee cant remember taking any big vacations, because his family has always dreamed of going to Australia. The plane tickets alone will be expensive. The family has to go during summer, because thats when Lee and his sister have a long break from school. Summer is also when plane tickets tend to cost the most. They havent bought the tickets yet, because theyre waiting for a good deal. Lee and his mom check online every day for the best price they can find.

There will be four people goingLee, his mom, his dad, and his sister Linda. See if you can find the best deal for Lees family on the next page. When Lee and his mom search for flights online, this is what they see:

Airline A	Airline B	Airline C	Airline D
Non-stop	1,829.99	1818.80	N/A	1818.80
One-stop	1651.79	1805.80	1639.80	1818.50

Nonstop flights will leave right from the airport right in Los Angeles, where Lee and his family live, and arrive in Sydney, Australia. Flights with one stop have a along the way, which adds a few hours to the trip. Lees family has two things to think about: how much can they afford to spend on tickets, and how fast do they want to get to Australia? 1. Which flights are cheaper, nonstop or one-stop? 2.

Which flights do you think would be shorter, nonstop or one-stop? Why? Lees family decides to save money and have a longer flight, so they look at one-stop flights. 3. What is the difference in prices between Airline As one-stop flight and Airline Cs one-stop flight? Airline A offers a discount on tickets for young people under 18. Both Lee and Linda are under 18, so their plane tickets would cost 25% less. Percents are ways of saying parts out of 100. So 25% is 25 parts out of a hundred.

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