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Thursday, October 28, 2010

You killed a family all because of the wrong inequality sign

Please don't kill the cat cookies.

I was showing first period how to write and solve an inequality that represents this situation:

The maximum load that a truck can hold is 1500 pounds. How much more can the truck hold if it already has 780 pounds of cargo?

And thus, the following conversation:

Student: How come the inequality sign can't be the other way around?

Me: Because then the cargo would weigh more than the maximum capacity, and then the truck driver would get pulled over by the police and get ticketed, then the truck driver would get in trouble with his boss and lose his job, and then the truck driver wouldn't be able to buy food for his family, and then they would starve.

Student: And then they die?

Me: And then they die - all because of the wrong inequality sign.

Student: Whoa.

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