stacy b-log

The time: 8th grade... 24-or-so years ago...

The place: The kitchen table of my youth, where I sometimes worked on my homework and where I had breakfast with my Daddy every morning while he read the paper.

The problem: Pre-algebra. Juan's father is one third as old as he was when Juan was born but twice as old as when Juan's sister was born. If Juan's father takes the 4:15 train to New Jersey, how old will Juan's first cousin, twice-removed, be when Juan's father turns 52?

Now my recollection of this word problem is not entirely accurate, as I have since consumed copious quantities of a chemical substance (ETOH) to purge this experience from my mind. You see, Juan's father kicked my father's ass. My Daddy is a mechanical engineer and as such was always a reliable homework helper when it came to math. He wouldn't do the problems for us, but he would gently outline a systematic approach to a given problem and guide my sister and me step by step until we arrived at the conclusion, which we would then check in the answer section in the back of the book. A foregone conclusion ... Until we met Juan's father, who was a "bonus" question and therefore, not included in the answer section in the back of the book.

Suffice it to say, we worked on that problem until well past my bed time, and even after I trundled off to sleep, my Daddy continued wrestling with Juan's father. When I came down for breakfast the next morning, my bleary-eyed father shared his solution (choose all that apply):
1) Juan's father was a $^%*&#*@ and there is no answer to this problem. They must have made an error in the printing of your textbook.
2) Juan's father was from Arkansas and his family tree is a wreath
3) You're going to have to get your math teacher to work this problem on the board for you - and copy down all the steps - because I cannot for the life of me figure this out.

The answer was what we'd call a "Duh! moment" - so simple, it's best left to the forgotten confines of history. And really, it doesn't matter now because Juan's father has been usurped by gold leaf. Behold - the word problem that took me six attempts before I finally looked in the back of the book for the answer and still had to work it backwards twice before I came to the correct conclusion:

(And I don't even have to look in the book to transcribe it because it's burned upon my cortex)

Gold is an element that can be expressed in extremely thin sheets called "gold leaf." The density of gold is 19.32 g/cm^3 (grams per cubic centimeter). If a 200 mg (milligram) sample of gold is formed into a sheet with a surface area of 2.4 feet x 1 foot, what is the thickness of the sheet in meters? Please express your answer using scientific notation.

The answer: In a subsequent post.

The conclusion: Juan's father can kiss my (and my Daddy's) asses. Welcome to chemistry!

**Oh, and I'll buy a drink for the person who comes up with the first correct answer. Still not sure if the comments are working, so send me an email just in case