Help with math problem

[misterNNL]

We were in a casino this past weekend that advertises they have had Awarded $ 160,554,599.39 in jackpot money to 49,141 winners since they opened a couple years ago. I am trying to figure out what that average out to but of course my calculator will not accept that many digits. All assistance appreciated with the solution.

Edited April 8, 2018 by misterNNL
changed a word

[Toner283]

Average of $3267.22 each winner.

[Xingu]

You can type basic math problems into your search bar and it should provide the answer. Just tried it with Bing and it worked.

[afx]

The average of a set of numbers is simply the sum of the numbers divided by the total number of values in the set. For example, suppose we want the average of 24 , 55 , 17 , 87 and 100 . Simply get the sum of the numbers 24 + 55 + 17 + 87 + 100 = 283 and divide by 5 to get 56.6 

For your example Tom it would  be the total awarded prize money divided by the total number of prize winners:  $160,554,599.39 / 49,141 = $3,267.22  per winner - average.

Edited April 9, 2018 by afx

[Xingu]

3 minutes ago, afx said:

The average of a set of numbers is simply the sum of the numbers divided by the total number of values in the set. For example, suppose we want the average of 24 , 55 , 17 , 87 and 100 . Simply get the sum of the numbers 24 + 55 + 17 + 87 + 100 = 283 and divide by 5 to get 56.6 

For your example Tom it would  be the total awarded prize money divided by the total number of prize winners:  $160,554,599.39 / 49,141 = $3,267.22  per winner - average.

I think Tom's problem was the same as mine, the calculator we had to use. Mine came up one digit short, so I could only input 16,055,459. That is why I went to the search bar to get my answer.

[SfanGoch]

A No. 2 pencil and a piece of paper work. No problem with short displays.

[High octane]

10 minutes ago, SfanGoch said:

A No. 2 pencil and a piece of paper work. No problem with short displays.

That's what I told my son many years ago when he asked for a computer.

[SfanGoch]

When I studied Aero Engineering, we used slide rules or paper and pencil. My technical drawing teacher, The late, great and always grouchy Lt.Col. C. Kyrie Kallas USAF (Ret), always liked to use this paraphrased quote from "Have Spacesuit-Will Travel":

"Anyone who can't use a slide rule is a cultural illiterate and should not be allowed to vote." 

That was the clean version.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

2 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

..."Anyone who can't use a slide rule is a cultural illiterate and should not be allowed to vote." ...

Somewhere around here, I have a slide rule and a pencil in a wooden case kinda like a fire-extinguisher, with a little hammer dangling from a chain. It's labeled

                                                                          IN CASE OF COMPUTER FAILURE, BREAK GLASS

It hung on the wall behind my desk back in the '90s.    

Edited April 9, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[russosborne]

Yes, and make sure you know how to shoe your horse yourself.

I love the Heinlein books, but reality they aren't. And time keeps on rolling and change happens whether we want it or not. And I had a very cheap slide rule for fun in high school. Never was very good with it. Paper and pencil always worked much faster.

Russ

[SfanGoch]

Knowledge never gets old or irrelevant. What you learned yesterday may be extremely useful tomorrow because one never knows what the future holds in store for us.

"I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth -- rocks!"

Al Einstein, Super Genius

[unclescott58]

16 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

When I studied Aero Engineering, we used slide rules or paper and pencil. My technical drawing teacher, The late, great and always grouchy Lt.Col. C. Kyrie Kallas USAF (Ret), always liked to use this paraphrased quote from "Have Spacesuit-Will Travel":

"Anyone who can't use a slide rule is a cultural illiterate and should not be allowed to vote." 

That was the clean version.  

I still carry a slide rule around in my car. About a month ago a 2nd grade class I was working with was being read a children's book based on the story of the movie Hidden Figures. One page showed one the characters holding a slide rule. I mentioned to the kids and the teacher that I had one out in my car. The teacher asked if I could bring it in and show it to the kids during their math time. So I did. It was a little tough trying explain to 2nd graders how to use a slide rule, when it's use is for math beyond what they've seen up to this point. Still they found it interesting. 

Several times I've shown slide rules to middle and high school kids. If they take a real interest in it, I will go on eBay and buy them one. Over the 11 years I've been doing this job, I have probably given away only about a half a dozen of them. But, still it interesting to see at least that many kids take an interest in them. 

By the way, I could not have made it through junior high and high school math without a slide rule. Portable electronic calculators didn't come out until about time I entered high school. And even then, they were too expensive for me for a couple more years. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

3 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

Knowledge never gets old or irrelevant. What you learned yesterday may be extremely useful tomorrow because one never knows what the future holds in store for us.

"I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth -- rocks!"

 

Fella that worked as a "mechanic" for one of the shops I contract to (who has since been superseded by someone possessing something closer to a functioning brain) was going on and on about the virtues of being "tech savvy", and how he understood EVERYTHING technical, and what he didn't know off the top of his head, he could find the answer to in seconds on his smart phone.

Never mind the fact that this is a guy whose work constantly came back for having been done wrong, and that the reasonably competent members of the crew carried him.

I asked him to explain, then, why the lights come on when you flick the switch on the wall. I expected a  response having something to do with moving magnetic fields inducing an electrical current in coils of wire at power generating stations, and the electricity so generated traveling through wires and transformers to the switch, that sent it on to the lights on demand. Oversimplification, but the basics are covered. And it was "common knowledge" science I had been taught by about the sixth grade.

He looked at me like I was a moron, like the question was beneath his dignity, and said haughtily "because you turned the switch".

So I asked him where the electricity came from, and how it got to the switch.

Deer in the headlights.

Then he got on his little device, but apparently didn't know enough to phrase a query to get an answer. 

And also keep in mind that this was a high-school graduate, with 10+ years "experience" working on cars, and part of the work he was entrusted with was vehicle charging systems...and this is typical of a lot of "technical" people these days.

When the zombie apocalypse happens (or some other SHTF scenario plays out) they're going to be SOL.   

Back to the earlier digression and the original topic: of course, not everybody was well-versed in using a slide-rule even in the misty recesses of time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and I was young.

However, EVERYONE was expected to be able to do long-division with pencil and paper. Granted, it's not the most "fun" way to pass the time, but it's probably not a bad idea to occasionally take the dust sheets off the part of your brain that was taught how to do it, and give it a little run around the block.

You just never know when being able to do some things without "technology" might come in REALLY handy.  

 

 

Edited April 10, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[Xingu]

I design fire sprinkler systems for buildings and deal in feet and inches all day. I regularly use one of these. The younger guys that work here do not know what it is, let alone know how to use it.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Wow. THAT'S a cool tool.   

[Cornpatch]

When I run into math problems and or spelling I take them to the wife. Never could do math, this is the guy that did the checkbook once when the wife was out of town, wrote a check, add the amount to the balance, did that to 11 checks. Was nice, to the wife caught the mistake, figured it was alright I had more money than what I started with and all the bills were paid. She didn't see it that way, haven't been allowed to touch the checkbook since, that was 9 years ago.

[LDO]

Disregard

Edited April 11, 2018 by LDO

[Xingu]

10 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Wow. THAT'S a cool tool.   

These were imported from Germany and cost $19.95 in the late 80's. I finally wore my original one out a few years ago and tried to find a new one. Several went for over $200 on eBay. I waited and finally came across one that was lightly used for less than $50. I can add/subtract a string of maybe 4 dimensions in my head, but this comes in handy when figuring 20-30 dimensions over a 200' run of pipe. There are calculators that do the same thing, but they feel unnatural when I try to use them.

 

[Lunajammer]

On 4/10/2018 at 6:19 AM, SfanGoch said:

Knowledge never gets old or irrelevant...

Reminds me of a joke Jay Leno told when I saw him live. He was ragging on the ridiculous prices university students pay for textbooks.

"Before a performance I did at (whatever) University, I had the day to kill, so I went to the campus book store. I picked up a book that said 'Latin, 27th edition.' What could be new in LATIN?"

[unclescott58]

Did you know 4 out of 3 people have trouble with factions? 

[Mark]

3 hours ago, Lunajammer said:

Reminds me of a joke Jay Leno told when I saw him live. He was ragging on the ridiculous prices university students pay for textbooks.

"Before a performance I did at (whatever) University, I had the day to kill, so I went to the campus book store. I picked up a book that said 'Latin, 27th edition.' What could be new in LATIN?"

Latin...the dead language that will live forever.

Did the casino put up a sign with information on how many losers there were, and the average of how much each one lost?

[misterNNL]

On 4/9/2018 at 4:46 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

Somewhere around here, I have a slide rule and a pencil in a wooden case kinda like a fire-extinguisher, with a little hammer dangling from a chain. It's labeled

                                                                          IN CASE OF COMPUTER FAILURE, BREAK GLASS

It hung on the wall behind my desk back in the '90s.    

I had a similar system on my office cubicle at work. I had a dummy hand grenade with a note on the bottom of the mounting plaque that said "Complaint dept.please take a number" and the pin had a little tag on it with the number one on it. No one ever complained.:)

[misterNNL]

On 4/10/2018 at 10:57 AM, Xingu said:

I design fire sprinkler systems for buildings and deal in feet and inches all day. I regularly use one of these. The younger guys that work here do not know what it is, let alone know how to use it.

 

OK I give up,what is it ?

[Xingu]

8 hours ago, misterNNL said:

OK I give up,what is it ?

It is a slide for adding/subtracting feet and inches, down to 1/8 of an inch.

[misterNNL]

13 hours ago, Xingu said:

It is a slide for adding/subtracting feet and inches, down to 1/8 of an inch.

Cool,must be a handy tool in your line of work. I've never seen anything like it. I see that kind of thing and am amazed at the thought process that inspired some obviously intelligent person to develop a device like that one.