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U of S : Communications : OCN : Apr 9, 1998
A recent edition of The Times of London reports that the heat is on Oxford University to provide better value for money. In a 249-page report, Sir Peter North, a former vice-chancellor of the institution, proposes 93 wide-ranging recommendations that include ways to, as the newspaper article puts it, "sharpen up the ancient university's lectures and the small-group tutorial teaching system."
Some of the recommendations:
- grade all academics' teaching performance (by peers)
- reduce bureaucracy for senior academics
- extend teaching by graduate students
- develop broader range of 'key skills' in undergraduates
- reject modular courses
Call the number of days per week a person would like to go out x. Multiplying by two and adding 5 gives us 2x+5. Multiplying by 50 produces 50(2x+5), and removing the brackets leaves us with 100x+250.
Let's assume someone who has has had his birthday this year, so that the addition of 1748 is required. As a result, our equation is 100x+1998. We then subtract the year of birth (call it y), and the number 1998 minus that year will yield the person's age, whatever that might be.
If we replace the 1998-y in the equation with an a for age, we are left with 100x+a The 100x simply moves the number of days a week chosen "to go out" from the ones place to the hundreds place, and the result will consist of x followed by a, all one number.
Note that if the person's birthday hasn't occured yet, the addition of only 1747 is required to ensure an accurate result. Another interesting observation is that even if someone wanted to go out 8 evenings a week, the problem still works. The problem will not work, however, if the person trying it is over 99.
The process consists of simple arithmetic, but this is not so obvious when a large number of steps are required, as there were in this problem. The introduction calls it a "quick bar game," and I suppose that the simplicity would be even less obvious to people in such an establishment.
Thank you for the opportunity to explain this rather interesting mathematical trick.
- Anthony Sack, Second-year Electrical Engineering/Computer Science
Seven campus teams - Crop Science, Physical Education, Hospitals, Soils, Administration, Engineering, and Maintenance - play 34 games in Rutherford Rink during the winter term, plus nother four playoff games.
Some of the players have been going at it for 25 years or so.
Members of the Crop Science team include: Bruce Hodgins, Mike Morrow, Wayne Goerzen, Steve Piche, Mike Robinson, Don Martens, Dallas Kessler, Keon Sproule, Marty Erlandson, Garry Jones, Bohdan Pylypec, Gary Entwistle, Dave Mandzuk, Rick Schryer, Trent Bollinger.
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