Tag: money

Lipstick Math
My best friend used to buy $1 lipstick when we were in high school. I think she still does.

Her logic: “If I only pay a dollar for it, I can have lots of different ones. And I don’t have to fret about losing it or having it melt in the car.”

Like a good friend, I went along with this logic.

For years.

Is expensive lipstick really expensive?

I’m not here to convince you of the quality of expensive lipstick. There are blogs out there dedicated to lipstick. I’m merely a serious lipstick user.

I will, however, attempt to convince you of the math (economics?) in lipstick.

There’s some psychology in this.

Suppose you buy your own lipstick (which you probably do). If you pay $1 for it, the perceived value is quite low – regardless of the actual quality. And you treat it like that — leaving it in the car to melt, forgetting it in a public restroom, etc.

Just like my friend does.

Now let’s assume that you pay $10 for a tube of lipstick. That’s ten times what you’ve been paying.

All of a sudden the perceived value is huge!

The loss factor is indirectly proportional to the price of the lipstick!

If you pay ten times as much for a tube of lipstick, you’re 1/10 as likely to lose it. Okay, I have no empirical evidence to confirm this, merely empirical experience.

But it’s true!

As soon as I started buying expensive lipsticks, I quit losing them. And I quit leaving them in the car to be melted by the Houston heat!

Note for my mathematician friends — the constant of proportionality is affected by the lipstick wearer and that crazy butterfly down in South America. There’s not strict math here. Yet. 😀

The finish-factor is directly proportional to the price of the lipstick.

Not only do I keep an expensive tube much longer, but I tend to finish it. In fact, the more expensive it is, the more likely I’ll use a lip brush to dig out the stuff crammed deep in the tube!

My current favorite, Chanel Allure Rouge, is a shocking $30 per tube. I keep the old broken tube in the Math Shack so I can dig lip color out of the bottom of it when it’s time to video or do a daily mug shot.

Lipstick Math applies to everything!

If your child uses his own allowance to buy a new toy, he really knows the value. Furthermore, if he spends more, he’s more likely to care for it.

When you notice this, point it out. Make sure to note how it’s math – and that your kiddo is doing it effortlessly!

Share your thoughts in the comments or on twitter/x.

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July 26, 2012
Hockey Game Expenses – Doing the Math
When I returned from the Houston Aeros Breast Cancer Awareness Hockey Game, I dug out my receipts from my back pocket. It made me think about math:

That was a pretty expensive trip to a hockey game. Especially since the tickets were free!

In the spirit of Dan Meyer‘s Any Questions? style of learning, my question arose:

Was it worth it for the Aeros to give me tickets to the hockey game?

Here are some things I need to know before I can arrive at the answer:
1. What’s the value of the tickets?
2. How much did I spend?
Answer 1. The tickets we got were $26 each. So my ticket, along with Daughter’s ticket, was $52.

Answer 2. Here’s the total of what she and I “consumed” on non-ticket items:
- Two beers ($13.50) (that was me, not us together)
- One stuffed animal (the mascot Chilly) $12.50
- A cowbell (I’m from the country, I couldn’t resist) $25
- One hotdog $6.50
- Parking $10
So we spent $67.50 at the hockey game. That’s $15.50 more than the cost of the tickets. Seems like it was worth it for them to give me the tickets.

But did they make money off me?

Just because they got their money back, plus some, doesn’t mean they made money.
1. Would these tickets have been sold to someone else at full price? And would those people have also spent $67.50?
2. What was the cost of us being there? And what was the cost of the stuffed animal, the cowbell, the hotdog and the beer?
Answer 1. There were lots of empty seats, so I’m thinking they were leftover seats. Nobody was going to buy them.

Answer 2. Supposing we took up $.05 of air conditioning and maybe $.05 in water (we also washed our hands), it cost them ten cents to have us around. For the things we bought:
- Stuffed animal – $1
- Cowbell – $1
- Hotdog – $.25
- Beer – $4 (there’s serious tax in this, I think)
So they spent about $6.35 having us there and paying for the products we bought. So yes, they definitely made money.

Lots of it.

Thoughts? Share them in the comments!

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March 15, 2012
Chuck E. Cheese & Math
This is a feature article by “K8” Crowder. She is the Daughter of Bon, the publisher of MathFour.com.

MawMaw & Pawpaw take my cousins and me to Chuck E. Cheese every month. We have a great time running around, playing games and riding rides. There’s not any math lessons there, per se. But Taica (my mom) always manages to get some math in there somewhere.

Every so often Chuck E. Cheese himself will come out and do a dance with a bunch of kids. Sometimes I go dance too, and sometimes I just hang back and watch.

Mawmaw says that other people “paid for” Chuck E. Cheese to come out and play. This means I shouldn’t muscle my way in and dance too. I’m not sure what that means. But it seems important to her.

Grownups “pay for” things.

Grownups get stuff from other people if they give them stuff. Taica says that’s what Mawmaw means when she says other people paid for Chuck E. Cheese.

Someone else gave Chuck E. Cheese something so he would dance with their kids. Not with me.

I got a Chuck E. Cheese t-shirt today – just like my cousin’s. Taica gave the man a bunch of pieces of paper and he gave me the shirt. Taica pointed out to me the sign on the shirts. She said it was math.

This was it:

See those numbers on the yellow sign at the bottom? They represent what one grownup has to give another grownup in order for me (or another kid) to score that shirt.

Taica said that she gave 1000 tickets for the shirt. And then she said, “That means that each ticket is the same as one penny.”

Tickets are the same as pennies? Really?

I’ve seen pennies. I like to put them in my mouth. And they do not look like tickets.

She rambled on about 9 dollars and 99 cents being mostly 10 dollars. And then if you divide 10 dollars by 1000 tickets, you get one penny per ticket.

I know that dividing means sharing your cookies with your friend. In particular, sharing so that nobody gets mad because the other kid got more. And since dividing is math, cookies are math.

I’m good with that.

But I’m not sure how sharing cookies has anything to do with tickets, pennies and shirts.

But in the end, I got my Chuck E. Cheese t-shirt.

But I still don’t believe a ticket is the same as a penny!

What do you think about this tickets and pennies thing? Do you like to give people stuff to get other stuff? Do you use tickets, pennies or something else?

Write about it below in the comments.

K8 is a full time kid who can count to 20 and only miss the number 15. Her favorite songs are “A-B-C-D” and “Had a very shiny nose.” Connect with her in the comments or on Twitter at @KateCrowder.

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February 12, 2012
The Math Behind Carpooling Toddlers
But should it be?

In my Mustang I get 20 miles to the gallon. Currently gas is hovering at three dollars per gallon. Which means for every 20 miles I drive, it costs me $3.

It’s 5 miles to school from my house. If I take her to school and back in the morning, and then retrieve her in the evening, it takes me 20 miles – or $3. (These are true numbers – even though they are working out rather nicely.)

Which means in addition to tuition, it’s another $15 a week. So in a 40 week school year, I spend another $600 in gas!

Maybe I should consider toddler carpooling…

But is it worth it to buy another car seat?

Some forward facing car seat models can go up to 80 pounds. Even in the 97th percentile of weight, our daughters won’t grow out of one of these car seats until they’re about eight years old. That’s another five years!

The first car seat I find on Amazon.com that goes to 80 pounds is the Cosco Juvenile High Back Booster Car Seat. It’s $46.54 and eligible for free shipping. Add tax, and you’re right at $50.

Sharing the duties with my neighbor means cutting my gas bill in half. So I would save $7.50 each week by carpooling. After seven weeks of carpooling, I would save

\(7 \times \$7.50 = \$52.50\)

That car seat would pay for itself after less than two months!

Will it be worth it long term?

After this year, I have three more years of carpooling available before we start homeschooling.

Three years at 40 weeks/year in school and $7.50 savings per week gets me at

\(3 \text{ years} \times 40 \text{ weeks} \times \$7.50 = \$900\)

I’ll save $900 over the next three years. And so will my neighbor!

I’m off to buy the carseat!

What will you do?

Do you take your kids to a co-op or day-school? Is there a family you can carpool with that you haven’t yet considered because of the logistics? Will you now work the numbers to see if it makes sense?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

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January 8, 2012
A Human Interest Story Involving Math: The $100 Battery Charger
My day job colleague told a beautiful story yesterday. He had been washing his car late at night, in the dark, and was approached for assistance. He is generous beyond belief, and apparently he made a real impact.

Oh, and it involved a little math.

I was washing my car the other night and really getting after it. I had the scrubbing brush going and was really making progress on getting the car clean. I was totally focused and I felt a tap on my shoulder. It startled me and I turned around to be faced with a large African-American woman who said, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt, but we’re having car problems. Is it possible you can help us? I think we need the battery jumped.”

I looked down the street and saw no other people and no car. Within a split second I remembered my latest purchase: a wireless battery charger that needs no people, no cables and no extra car to jump a battery. I got it out of my garage and handed it to her.

“I’m in the middle of washing my car. Why don’t you borrow this? It should help.”

She thanked me and walked away with the charger. I got back to washing my car.

Five minutes later there was another tap on my shoulder. Another African American woman was standing there holding a five dollar bill. She offered it to me.

“Oh my goodness, no,” I said. “I’m not taking your money. I’m just glad I could help.”

Another 5 minutes went by and I saw one of the ladies put the battery charger close to my garage. I was really getting into the car washing at this point – suds everywhere – so I didn’t pay much attention.

When I was returning my carwash supplies to the garage, I saw a crisp new $100 bill on top of the battery charger!

That thing was only $40 – and they just gave me $100 to borrow it!

This is a wonderful and touching story. These ladies were having difficulty finding someone to help them. Not only did my friend help, he also freely gave them something to use and trusted without question that they would return it.

They, too, were moved by his generosity.

The numbers don’t work.

It looks like this:
- Battery charger cost: $40
- “Rental fees” offered: $5
- Shown gratitude: $100
The numbers don’t make sense. And in a way they shouldn’t. The $100 bill wasn’t really money. It was the biggest, fattest, loudest thank you note ever written. There’s no value you can place on someone being free and generous and trusting.

It still goes in as $100 in the eyes of the bank. But what do they know?

Notice the math and share the story.

When you share this story, point out the math. Especially if you tell this in front of (or to) children. Making the connection of generosity and emotion to math will help everyone see how integral math is in our lives.

How about you? Do you have a story of generosity that you’re just now realizing involves math? Share it in the comments!

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September 22, 2011