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Math in Real Life: The Commutative Property
I currently have some paper-shuffling duties. One of today's goals: Given a big box of cards (about half orange and half purple), put together 155 decks of cards. Ideally, each deck would have 20 orange cards and 20 purple cards. But we don't have enough cards to do that. So get as close as you can.
Plan A: Deal out the cards as if to 155 players. When you run out of cards, you're done.
Problem: I do not have the space to lay out 155 stacks of cards.
Plan B: Make 155-card stacks with the orange cards and make more with the purple cards. Take one card from each stack to create each deck.
Solution: I ran out of cards after creating 16 stacks of orange cards and 13 stacks of purple cards. So we have enough cards for each deck to have 16 orange cards and 13 purple cards.
Notes: I always call this the communitive property for some reason. (I think of equations more as communes than commuters?) Also, yes, these cards look quite ugly together.
Plan A: Deal out the cards as if to 155 players. When you run out of cards, you're done.
Problem: I do not have the space to lay out 155 stacks of cards.
Plan B: Make 155-card stacks with the orange cards and make more with the purple cards. Take one card from each stack to create each deck.
Solution: I ran out of cards after creating 16 stacks of orange cards and 13 stacks of purple cards. So we have enough cards for each deck to have 16 orange cards and 13 purple cards.
Notes: I always call this the communitive property for some reason. (I think of equations more as communes than commuters?) Also, yes, these cards look quite ugly together.