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Percents can be tricky. Here are some problems that point out some of the pitfalls of percents.


1. Which would be better: to become 50%richer and then 50 or to become 50%poorer and then 50%richer, or to have your fortune remain constant?

2. The recipe for pizza in Laurel's Kitchen says: Let the dough rise only once, about 1 and 1/2 hours'. How long should you let the dough rise if you use Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Yeast, whose package states that it `rises 50%faster'?

3. The following question was submitted to Marilyn vos Savant.

I'm having a problem with the illustration below, which was captioned, ``Men consume about 76%of all alcoholic beverages. Percentage consumed:"

I understood the statement to mean: Of people who drink, 76%are men, and 24%are women. But the illustration seems to suggest: Of alcohol consumed, 57%is men, and 43%is by women (averaging the four categories). Help! -K.B., Highland, Ind.

How should Marilyn answer this question?

4. A series of 12 monthly Tantalene injections ($450apiece) reduces the 5-year death toll from lemon meringue disease from 3 per 10,000,000 to 1 per 10,000,000. Suppose that you work for an advertising agency representing the makers of Tantalene, and your job is to get doctors to prescribe Tantalene injections for as many of their patients as possible. How would you express this change in mortality rate using percents?

Homework assignment:

Read Chapter 1 &2 and do the following problems. Chapter 1, No. 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 12; Chapter 2. No. 2, 4, 9, 10, 11

Journal assignment for Tuesday 28 September

Read the current Chance News. Find an article that interests you and read the full text of the article on gopher. Write your comments on the article in your journal.

Homework assignment to be handed in with Journal due 7 October.

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