So the Emergent Math family moved houses this weekend (editor’s note: they didn’t actually move the houses, they moved the furniture inside the houses). We were given basically three different options for U-Haul rentals of increasing size and increasing price. This led me to believe that a nice systems problem could be constructed from this.
I still feel that way, but it sort of got away from me. I think the idea of deciding whichtruck to rent + various mileage costs is pretty decent. But then things sort of spiraled out of my control and I ended up with a convoluted problem that was actually kind of tedious.
So I’m asking my faithful readership to help me out. I’ve split the problem up into two pieces – as I probably would have in a classroom setting. Help me make this problem better!
Basic gist of the problem:
Moving houses (ed. note: again, just the furniture – the author was not living in a double-wide). Three different U-Haul options of increasing square footage (733, 865, and 1015 cubic feet) with three different up-front costs for the U-Haul ($19.95, $29.95, and $39.95, respectively). Also, mileage costs $0.79 per mile – hence thenice linear functionality of the problem. Determine which U-Haul I should rent.
Documents (Part 1 and 2) below.
Best improvement to the problem gets a free oven mitt!
