Idaho Society of
Professional Engineers
Friday Update - 03/19/04
**The next Friday Update will be 04/02/04.**
UPCOMING EVENTS:
● Continuing Education Seminar, Design of
Waste Containment and Closure Systems, BSU, March 24, 2004, For additional
information: Call Joseph Sener, College of Engineering, Civil Engineering
Department, at 208-426-4814 or visit their web site at
http://coen.boisestate.edu/ssgmsd/home.htm
● Joint Chapter Meeting - ASCE Southern
Idaho Section & ISPE Magic Valley Chapter, Friday, March 26, 2004, 12:00 Noon,
276 Taylor Building, College of Southern Idaho, Topic - Legislative Affairs
Panel - Excursions in the Practice of Professional Engineering. For more
information, contact Andrew Swensen, 208-733-2446,
aswensen@riedeseleng.com
● ISPE Southwest Chapter Luncheon,
Tuesday, April 20, 2004, 12:00 Noon, Burger n Brew Restaurant, 6125
Fairview Avenue (near Curtis), Boise, Speaker:
Lieutenant Governor Jim
Risch
● IBPEPLS Board Meeting, April 30 and May
1, 2004
● NSPE 2004 Convention and Expo, July 8 -
10, 2004, Honolulu, Hawaii
New EJCDC Custom CDs
Now you can get the EJCDC documents you want burned to a custom CD! Choose from
the full set of contract documents, specific subsets, or individual documents
related to construction, procurement and more.
Give Back, Get Back
This is the last month to participate in the "Give Back: Get Back" incentive
program, part of the P.E. Invitational--NSPE's "Member Get A Member" campaign.
Any NSPE member who sponsors two or more new or reclaimed, full-paying Licensed
Members and/or Members between October 3, 2003, and March 31, 2004, will receive
their 2004-05 NSPE national membership for FREE! To see who has already earned
free 2004 dues, view the
Membership Recruitment Hall of Fame.
A REALLY USEFUL WEB SITE: iCivilEngineer.com
iCivil Engineer, located at
http://www.icivilengineer.com/, is a "knowledge portal" designed for civil
engineering professionals and students. Its goal is to collect and catalog
valuable civil engineering relevant Internet resources for quick reference and
to explore how to take advantage of Internet technology to serve the civil
engineering community.
MATHCOUNTS PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
Can you solve this MATHCOUNTS problem? The answer will appear in next week's
edition of the Friday Update!
Singers’ Week on Television
Last week was a big week for singers on television. Between the fans of the
American Idol singers and fans of the Sopranos (okay, they’re not singers),
millions of television viewers considered it a great week! There were actually
three American Idol shows on last week that were in the list of top 10 shows by
viewers: Tuesday’s episode (T) with 25.5 million viewers; Wednesday’s episode
(W) with 19.3 million viewers; and the Uncut special (U) with 19.7 million
viewers. Obviously some people watched all three shows, and we would label them
“T&W&U” viewers. Let’s say that the ratio of “only T” viewers to “only T&W”
viewers was 10:1, the ratio of “only T&U” viewers to “T&W&U” viewers was 1:20,
and the ratio of “only T” viewers to “T&W&U” viewers was 1:3. Then how many
“T&W&U” viewers would there have been?
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Though many people know that sopranos are singers, 12.1 million people know that
the Sopranos really aren’t. For their season premier, 12.1 million viewers tuned
in, even though only 30% of households have HBO (the station airing the show).
Assuming that the percent of HBO subscribers watching the Sopranos would remain
constant, what percent of the households would have to subscribe to HBO in order
for the Sopranos to have 15 million viewers (the number of viewers watching the
rival, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent")? Express your answer to the nearest whole
percent.
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The March 7 season premier of the Sopranos was a very anticipated event since
there had not been a new episode in about 15 months. Fans were counting down the
seconds! How many seconds are there in the 15-month span from 9:00pm Dec. 7,
2002 to 9:00pm March 7, 2004
Answer to last week's problem:
Let’s change this into an addition problem that we know is true: (_9,28_) +
(76,_35) = (_6_,3_1). Notice that for the one’s column, only 6 + 5 will give us
11. So we have (_9,286) + (76,_35) = (_6_,3_1). We also now have a 1 that’s been
carried and will be included with the sum of the 8 and 3 in the ten’s place, to
give us a 2 in the ten’s place of the answer: (_9,286) + (76,_35) = (_6_,321).
For the hundred’s place we know that we have a 1 that’s been carried along with
a missing number and a 2 that must get us to a sum of 3 or 13, so the missing
number is 0, and we have (_9,286) + (76, 035) = (_6_,321). In the thousand’s
place, the 9 and 6 will give us a 5 in the answer, and will result in us placing
the 5 and carrying a 1: (_9,286) + (76, 035) = (_65,321). For the ten-thousand’s
place, we have the 1 that was carried along with another missing number and the
7 that must get us the 6 or 16 in the answer. This missing number must be an 8
since 1 + 8 + 7 = 16: (89,286) + (76, 035) = (_65,321). And since this did
result in 16, we also know that the final missing spot is a carried 1: (89,286)
+ (76, 035) = (165,321). Now we have to add up the six digits we placed in the
blanks: 8 + 6 + 0 + 1 + 5 + 2 = 22.
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Marsha adds all but one of the first ten positive integers. The sum of the first
ten positive integers is: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = (1 + 10) + (2
+ 9) + (3 + 8) + (4 + 7) + (5 + 6) = 11 × 5 = 55. The sum of all but one of the
first ten positive integers is a square, so what number did she remove from the
sum? What square is closest to 55? 49 is closest and it is 6 less. Therefore,
she removed the 6.
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Ramon sells two enchiladas and three tacos for $2.50. He sells three enchiladas
and two tacos for $2.70. Let e be the cost of the enchilada. Let t be the cost
of the taco. Write the equation using cents and not dollars so we don't have to
deal with decimals.
2e + 3t = 250 (Eq. 1)
3e + 2t = 270 (Eq. 2)
5e + 5t = 520 (Eq. 3 = Eq. 1 + Eq. 2)
e + t = 104 (Eq. 4 = Eq. 3 ÷ 5)
2e + 2t = 208 (Eq. 5 = Eq. 4 × 2)
t = 42 (Eq. 1 – Eq. 5) and e = 62 (Eq. 2 – Eq. 5)
We know that 3 enchiladas and 2 tacos cost $2.70. We now also know that a taco
costs $.42. Therefore, 3 enchiladas and 4 tacos cost: $2.70 + (2 × $.42) = $2.70
+ $.84 = $3.54
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Let’s take 74 - 73 and factor a 73 out of both terms: 73 ( 7 – 1) = 73 × 6 = 2 ×
3 × 73. The least prime factor is 2.
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=485&_UserReference=6A4849F34D686C13405741FC
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
