Idaho Society of Professional Engineers

           PO Box 170239, Boise, ID 83717-0239  208-426-0636  Fax: 208-426-0639  E-Mail: ispe@idahospe.org

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Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
Friday Update – 10/12/07

UPCOMING EVENTS:

NEW FACES OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING IS SEEKING NOMINATIONS!
NSPE is seeking young, dynamic, and successful engineers to be the face of professional engineering. The New Faces of Engineering program spotlights the achievements of engineers under the age of 30. The deadline for submission is November 9. For more information and an application go to http://www.nspe.org/awards/aw1-newfaces.asp

CALL FOR DESIGN CHALLENGE JUDGES!
Help inspire today's young people to learn about engineering by serving as a judge on the review board for this year's NEDC competition. For more information click on

http://www.magnetmail.net/images/clients/NSPE/attach/JETScallforjudges.doc

WELCOME TO OUR NEW ISPE SUSTAINING ORGANIZATIONS:

Briggs Engineering Inc

ISPE SINCERELY APPRECIATES THE SUPPORT OF ALL OF OUR CURRENT SUSTAINING ORGANIZATIONS:

AHJ Engineers, PC
B & A Engineers, Inc
Delta Engineering Group
Elkhorn Engineers
G & S Structural Engineers
J.M. Miller Engineering, Inc
J-U-B Engineers, Inc
Kittelson & Associates Inc
Land Solutions, Land Surveying & Consulting
Mason & Stanfield, Inc
Materials Testing & Inspection
MWH
Progressive Engineering Group, Inc
Quadrant Consulting, Inc
Rational Technology of Idaho, LLC
Riedesel Engineering, Inc
Schiess & Associates
Stapley Engineering
Terracon
TerraGraphics Environmental Engineering, Inc
Walker Engineering

Please consider joining these great companies in becoming an ISPE Sustaining Organization. ISPE offers the Sustaining Organization category of membership to enhance the visibility of your commitment to ISPE and the engineering profession. Your membership will allow us to better serve the engineering community through promoting engineering and ethics, and supporting the needs of the engineer including professional development.

If you are interested in becoming a Sustaining Organization, please contact the ISPE office at ispe@idahospe.org.
 

MATHCOUNTS PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
Can you solve this MATHCOUNTS problem? The answer will appear in next week's edition of the Friday Update!

A Maze of Maize
Bethany and her family are attending the Funville Town Fall Festival, and the first thing they do is get in line for the Maize (corn) Maze. When Bethany gets to the entrance of the Maze she is facing north. Following the paths, she walks straight ahead for 10 feet and reaches and intersection at which she turns right and walks 40 feet east, at which point the path dead ends. Bethany decides to back-track 15 feet and turns south. She walks 5 feet south and then turns and walks 6 feet east. If Bethany was to walk straight back to the entrance, cutting through the corn and disregarding the paths, how far would she have to walk? Express your answer as a decimal to the nearest tenth.
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Later that day Bethany and her brother Ben decide to go through the Maize Maze again. When Bethany starts she walks 10 feet north, 30 feet west, and then 20 feet north. During this same time, Ben walks 20 feet north, 25 feet east, and then 15 feet south. Disregarding paths, what is the shortest distance between Ben and Bethany? Express your answer to the nearest whole number.
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When Bethany’s family is leaving the festival they pick up a flyer, and it says that the Maize Maze is on a square plot of land that is 100 yards by 100 yards. The path through the maze is 1.5 yards wide and 3000 yards long. If one square yard of land holds 18 stalks of corn, how many stalks of corn are in the Maize Maze? Assume that the entire plot of land has corn planted on it except for what is cleared to create the paths.

Answer to last week’s MATHCOUNTS problem:
The first thing to notice is that there are 36 cards in total, therefore,
p + b + g = 36.

Additionally, b = 2p and g = ½ (p + b).

Now that we have three equations we can use substitution to solve the system of equations. (Remember that when you have multiple variables you need the same number of equations as the number of distinct variables in order to solve the system of equations).

Plug b = 2p into g = ½ (p + b)

g = ½ (p + 2p)

…simplified…

g = (3/2)p … or p = (2/3)g if you solve for p


Plug b = 2p into p + b + g = 36.

p + 2p + g = 36

…simplified…

3p + g = 36

Now plug p = (2/3)g into 3p + g = 36

3(2/3)g + g = 36

3g = 36

g = 12 cards
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Now that we know that there are 12 green cards in the deck (see the above explanation), we can easily determine the number of blue cards by plugging 12 into the previously established equations.

Since p = (2/3)g, p = (2/3)(12). p = 8.

Now we plug p = 8 and g = 12 back into the original equation p + b + g = 36.

(8) + b + (12) = 36

20 + b = 36

b = 16 blue cards.

Now that we know there were 16 blue cards and 36 cards total we know that the probability of drawing a blue card at random is: 4:9
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If 4 blue cards are removed from the deck there will be 32 cards remaining (36 – 4 = 32).

There will still be 8 purple cards in the deck so the probability of drawing a purple card is now 8:32, or 1:4.


If you want to see last week's problem again, click http://www.mathcounts.org/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=1105&z=110



Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
PO Box 170239
Boise, ID 83717-0239
208-426-0636
Fax: 208-426-0639
E-Mail: ispe@idahospe.org
Web Site: www.Idahospe.org 





 

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