Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
Friday Update - 04/16/04
UPCOMING EVENTS:
● ISPE Northern Chapter Seminar - Monday,
April 19, 2004, 12:00 Noon - 1:00 PM, Topic: Overview of Stormwater & Erosion
Control Systems to Conform to EPA Phase 2 Requirements. Video Conference between
University of Idaho - Moscow (Room Ag 104) and University of Idaho - Coeur
d'Alene (Room CdA 1). For more information contact Greg Brands, 762-8700,
gfbrcb@adelphia.net
● ISPE Southwest Chapter Luncheon, Tuesday,
April 20, 2004, 12:00 Noon, Burger n Brew Restaurant, 6125 Fairview Avenue (near
Curtis), Boise, Speaker: Clair Bowman, Executive Director of COMPASS
● ASCE April Dinner Meeting, Thursday,
April 22, 2004, 6:00 pm Social Hour, 7:00 pm Dinner, DoubleTree Hotel
(Riverside), 2900 Chinden Blvd, Boise, Presentation - Outstanding Civil
Engineering Award Banquet Dinner, RSVP or more information - Ryan Adelman,
288-1992,
radelman@kellerassociates.com
● IBPEPLS Board Meeting, April 30 and May
1, 2004
● NSPE 2004 Convention and Expo, July 8 -
10, 2004, Honolulu, Hawaii
ENGINEER VOLUNTEERS WANTED TO SERVE ON
BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL WITH AN ENGINEERING FOCUS
Jeff Siebrecht is working with educators and engineers in Coeur d'Alene
to start a charter high school with an engineering focus. He is looking for an
engineer or firm in the Coeur d'Alene / Post Falls area that may be interested.
Jeff is currently looking for engineers to serve on the board of directors. If
you are interested or know of any engineers that are retiring or are looking for
this kind of opportunity, please let contact Jeff at
JASiebrech@aol.com
GIVE BACK, GET BACK HAS BEEN EXTENDED!
NSPE has extended the Give Back, Get Back program until June 30, 2004! Members
have plenty of time to earn free national dues for 2004-2005, just sponsor two
or more members by the June 30 deadline. See
http://www.nspe.org/me1-give-get.asp for more details.
MATHCOUNTS PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
Can you solve this MATHCOUNTS problem? The answer will appear in next
week's edition of the Friday Update!
Is There a Supercenter Near You?
A popular store chain has been trying to expand its presence in California. They
are planning to open 40 stores in California in the next four to six years. If
they were to open these stores over the next five years, a store would open
every x days, on average. What is the value of x, to the nearest whole number?
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Many areas in California are not excited about the projected store openings. In
a suburb of Los Angeles, an initiative that would have allowed the opening of
one of these stores was rejected by a 3-2 margin. What percent of the people
voted in favor of the initiative?
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The people who are opposed to the building of these stores voice their concern
about the crowded roads and suburban sprawl that these Supercenters lead to. Why
do they call it a Supercenter? One reason might be the size of the store, which
is approximately 200,000 square feet. If a football field measures 50 yards by
120 yards, how many football fields is the area of the Supercenter equivalent
to? Express your answer as a decimal to the nearest tenth.
Answer to last week's problem:
From the last two given points, we can see that when the x-value increases by 2,
the y-value decreases by 3. This is the same as saying that as the x-value
increases by 1, the y-value decreases by 1.5. From the first given point to the
second given point, there is a decrease in the y-value of 9, which is 1.5 × 6,
so there would be an increase of 1 × 6 = 6 from the x-value of 2, so p = 8. Now,
to go from (2, –5) to (13, q), there is an increase in the x-value of 11 = 1 ×
11, so there will be a decrease in the y-value of 1.5 × 11 = 16.5, so q = –5 –
16.5 = –21.5. The value of p + q is 8 + –21.5 = –13.5.
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The alphabetic part is separated from the numeric part, i.e., they don't have
any dependencies. So let's look at the alphabetic part. If the license starts
with "A", then the second letter can be any letter from "B" to "Z" except "O" so
there are 24 choices when the license starts with "A". If it starts with "B"
there are 23 choices for the second letter (no "A", "B", or "O"). Similarly down
to "N" which can have 11 choices. We can't use "O," and "P" can have 10 choices
all the way down to "Y" which can only have one option. No license plate can
start with Z. 24 + 23 + ... + 2 + 1 = (24 + 1) × (24 ÷ 2) = 25 × 12 = 300
choices Now let's look at the numbers. If the first number is "1", then the
second can be "2" through "9" for a total of 8 choices. If the first number is
"2", then the second can be "3" through "9" for a total of 7 choices. Similarly,
if the first number is "8", then the second can be "9" for a total of 1 choice.
Notice that the first number can't be 9 because the rules say that the numbers
must be increasing. 8 + 7 + ... + 2 + 1 = (8 + 1) × (8 ÷ 2) = 9 × 4 = 36. Since
there are 300 choices for the first part and 36 choices for the second part, the
two parts can be combined in 300 × 36 = 10,800 combinations.
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We're starting off with the following:
1 _ _ , _ _ 9 , 2 _ 2 , _ 6 _ , 2 _ _ , _ 3 _
Let's first look at the third and fifth numbers. They each have a "2" as the
hundreds digit. Since this is an arithmetic sequence, the fourth number has a 2
in the hundreds digit.
1_ _ , _ _ 9, 2 _ 2, 2 6 _, 2 _ _, _ 3 _
Looking at the second and third numbers it appears that the ones digit differs
by 3. This implies that the ones digit of the fourth term will be 3 larger than
that of the third term, so 2 + 3 = 5
1_ _ , _ _ 9, 2 _ 2, 2 6 5, 2 _ _, _ 3 _
Similarly, fill in the ones digits for the first, fifth and sixth terms.
1_ 6 , _ _ 9, 2 _ 2, 2 6 5, 2 _ 8, _ 3 1
Looking at the fourth and sixth terms, 65 is greater than 31. And the third
through fifth terms are in the 200's. So it is safe to assume that the sixth
term is in the 300's.
1_ 6 , _ _ 9, 2 _ 2, 2 6 5, 2 _ 8, 3 3 1
Going back to the fourth through sixth terms, we can take the difference.
331 - 265 = 66
This means that each term is 33 larger than the previous term.
1 6 6 , 1 9 9, 2 3 2, 2 6 5, 2 9 8, 3 3 1
Therefore the seventh term is 331 + 33 = 364.
If you want to see last week's problem again, click on
http://www.mathcounts.org/Queries/POW_Archive.taf?_function=detail&Q_A_uid1=489&_UserReference=F5398A8B6224A202407D68A7
Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
PO Box 170239
Boise, ID 83717-0239
208-426-0636
Fax: 208-426-0639
E-Mail: ispe@rmci.net
Web Site: www.Idahospe.org
Idaho
Society of Professional Engineers
