Math 1030 Signature Assignment

      Math 1030/Quantitative Literacy

Signature Assignment

        I chose to upload the Working in the Yard written assignment for my signature assignment. I feel like it gives a pretty good example of some of the essential skills that I learned in my Quantitative Literacy Math 1030 class this semester. 

       This assignment came from our Problem Solving Module at the beginning of the semester. This module really helped change the way I look at story problems, as well as the rest of any of the math problems that we encountered as the semester continued forward. I started to look at math problems critically, and began to break them down into separate parts to know what I needed to solve or organize first in order to help the problem make sense. 

       This class really helped me understand the applications of math in real world problems and situations. That's another reason that I chose this assignment to upload; because it's a math problem that is a real life problem. I want to remember this skill so that I can really look at things from all angles when I have a project or a problem in my life. This assignment showed us how analyzing can help you save time, money, as well as be sure things are done accurately. Great life skill.

Here were the original instructions for the Working in the Yard assignment, as well as the information that was given to us for the problem needing to be solved at hand:

Using this information, figure out whether your neighbor will save money by picking up the soil himself.  Use the results of your calculations to guide your decision:  would you recommend that your neighbor pick up the soil himself, or pay for delivery?

Detail all your assumptions and calculations, and clearly write out your final conclusions. 

Take a picture, or scan your work and submit it with your written explanation.

• Is he redoing the whole yard or just the front?
• He's redoing the whole yard
• How much topsoil does he need?
• I'm not sure, you'll have to figure that out.  Remember he's putting a new 4 inch layer down over all the area currently covered by grass in the overhead picture above.
• How big is the yard?  
• I'm not sure, but you can probably estimate it using the overhead picture.
• What kind of pickup truck does he drive?  
• A 2003 Ford F-150 XL.
• How much can the pickup carry?  
• The truck bed is 80 inches long, 69 inches wide, and 20 inches tall.
• How much is the delivery charge?  
• $30 per truckload on top of the soil cost.  Each truckload can deliver up to 18 cubic yards.
• How much does the topsoil cost?  
• $18 per cubic yard (sold in 1/4 yard increments).
• How far is the soil store?  
• It is 9 miles away.  It takes about 20 minutes to drive there.
• What gas mileage does the pickup truck get?  
• It averages 17 miles to the gallon.
• What is the current gas cost?  
• Assume it's $3.79/gallon.

Here I have uploaded my assignment sheet. This shows the steps I needed to take in order to do the calculations properly, as well as in which order I needed to do them to make sense of the information:

Here I share my written portion to go along with my calculations to help make sense of my thought process and explain my reasoning:

       From my calculations I figured that having the soil delivered to his house from the store would cost around $928.89 dollars including the cost of the soil as well as the cost regarding the amount of truckloads delivered. I then figured that it would cost him around $866.98 if he took care of the truckloads himself with his truck. This cost came from the price of the soil, and how much money in gas he would be paying in total. From these two costs, I would let him know that it would save him around $61.91 which is a good amount of money, but I also calculated how long it would take him to drive back and forth from the store. It would take him around 4.66 hours of driving time. That doesn't include the amount of time he would have to wait to have them fill his truck, and then unload his truck once he got home. If he is looking to save every penny I would suggest that he does the whole job himself. But when it comes down to it, if he is also doing all of the yard work I think that it would be worth it to have the soil delivered. If he did that, as soon as the first load comes he could start spreading it around the yard, and get his work done a lot faster.