Monday, Mar. 01, 2004 - 3:16 p.m.

Why Math teachers and elderly math students go grey

Math 123

HW 2-25-04

Bonus 9.1, #86

Examining the diplodocus

Remains of this very large dinosaur have been found in Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming. Its dimensions are around 27 meters long and 5 meters high, with a weight of about 17 tonnes. Pieces of a diplodocus were also found in New Mexico. This one was estimated to be 45 meters long and weigh 30 tonnes. Thought at first to be another kind of dinosaur, it was later considered to be a very old diplodocus.

I had several interesting discussions about the metrical dimensions of this beast, all of which made it very clear to me why the metric system is not used in the US and why it may never be used here. My 40 year old daughter who is a nurse had no idea how big 27 meters was, but opined the creature was about as big as one fourth of a football field when the number was converted to feet. The concept of tonnes was not in her knowledge, but she did share with me the fact that I had no concept at all of how much 10 cc�s were. Since she is a nurse, she knows all about cc�s.

The discussion with my husband was even more enlightening. He too had no concept of the size in metric although he did share with me that he wondered if I knew how many metric tons of horse manure it would take to switch our country over to that system. It is his considered opinion that the metric system was invented by foreigners who thought it might make them superior to the US, but since that obviously hadn�t worked, they would just have to switch back if they wanted to be in the running. We did have some interesting observations about how big this particular dinosaur might have been if it had ever existed, since fossil fragments have not conclusively proved any such thing. Once measurements were converted to English, the animal was thought to probably be as long as a truck tractor and its �reefer�, and probably weighed about as much as 3400 bales of hay.

We ended this math session with a heated dissertation about measuring light years. I could have continued this investigation with my 15 year old grandson who may have had a few metric facts floating around in the testosterone but by this time, I had a headache. May I please have some Bonus points for effort?

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