Quantitative explorations in everyday life | quantitative exploration | Ashford University

 MAT205: Quantitative Explorations in Everyday Life In Your World Week 1 Discussion Problems Number 

1 Assume you are visiting Canada, and driving along the highway. You need to maintain the speed limit on the road. Answer the following questions: • What units are used to express Canadian speed limits? • Convert the Canadian speed limit of 60 to American units. Then, find at least two Canadian news articles that involves numerical data and units different from speed limit units. What are the equivalent American units? Convert any of the Canadian units that you found in the news to the equivalent American Unit. Number 2 Complete problem 84 on page 88 of your course textbook. Number 3 Read the following news article: OMG, the Water’s Warm! NASA Study Solves Glacier Puzzle. The articles uses all sorts of metric and non-metric units. Use your mathematical abilities to show the following equivalencies: • 2.5 miles is equivalent to 4 km • 2000 feet is equivalent to 610 meters • 33 degree Fahrenheit is 0.5 degree Celsius. Then answer the following questions: • How did the news article affect you? • What will be the consequences, globally and locally on human-lives, of the event mentioned in the article? Number 4 Complete problem 101 on page 107 of your course textbook. Number 5 Suppose you decide to drive across the country which is roughly a distance of 3000 miles. Compute the answer to the following questions: • How much energy will be required to drive the distance using an electric powered car? • How much money will you spend on energy for the electric-powered car? • How much energy will be required by a gasoline-powered car? • How much money will you spend on energy for the gasoline-powered one? Then, identify the cheaper option and describe the advantages and disadvantages of gasoline-powered and electric-powered cars. Number 6 Complete problem 103 on page 107 of your course textbook. MAT205: Quantitative Explorations in Everyday Life Number 7 Read the Scientists Agree: Global Warming is Happening and Humans are the Primary Cause post. The article identifies the following percent-values on human caused global warming. Convert these values into fractions. • Oreskes 2004 – 100% • Doran 2009 – 97% • Anderegg – 2010 – 97% • Cook 2013 – 97% • Verheggen 2014 – 91% • Stenhouse 2014 – 93% • Carlton 2015 – 97% Identify how these various percent-values (above) are used: either as a fraction to describe change or for comparison. Explain your claim. Calculate the percentage change of Americans who “worry a great deal” based on the Gallup Poll from 2017. Number 8 Complete problem 77 on page 155 of your course textbook. Number 9 Read the article: These are the Biggest Numbers in the Universe. Then, make a list of all the large numbers mentioned in the article, and write down those numbers mathematically. For example, if ten thousand is mentioned in the article, then you will write down: Ten thousand and in mathematical notation it is 10,000 Number 10 What is the law of large numbers? How is that law used in the article Confronting a Law of Limits? Number 11 Complete problem 79 on page 155 of your course textbook. Number 12 Complete problem 80 on page 155 of your course textbook. Number 13 Assume that the US Government has projected that it will have a deficit of $438 billion. But, in reality, the actual deficit is $587 billion. Describe the size of the error in terms of both absolute error and relative error. Describe any uncertainty that might be associated with these numbers. Number 14 The United Nations Development Program regularly releases its Human Development Report. A closely watched finding of this report is the Human Development Index (HDI) which measures the overall achievements of a country in three basic dimensions of human development: life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted income. Go to the Human Development Index (HDI) website to find all the report data and understand all the indices and answer the following questions: • How is HDI defined and computed? MAT205: Quantitative Explorations in Everyday Life • (b). What is the percent change in the United States’ indices from 1990 to 2015? • Locate the US indices for Education, Gender, Sustainability and Health. Compare the indices to a country whose indices are better than those of the U.S. and to a country whose indices are worse than those of the U.S.. All your answers should be in percentages. Number 15 Complete problem 30 on page 188 of your course textbook.