Real-Life Math -- Solution
You are working at a small solar company as an alternative energy
researcher. To help with selling the product to customers, you want to help
a sales representative show a potential client the savings.
Let's find
out how much the customer currently pays every month and year (without solar
energy).
1,500 kWh x $0.07 /kWh = $105/month
$105 x 12 months
= $1,260 /year
Now, let's see how many months of paying a $105
energy bill it will take to add up to $15,000.
$15,000/$105 = 142.857
It
would take about 143 months, or 11 years and 11 months. You are able to tell
the customer that in less than 12 years they will have free energy thanks
to your solar panels. After that time, they will see savings of $105 every
month, or $1,260 every year. Plus they've helped to make the world a greener
place.
"If you are thinking that 'I will never use this' during Grade
12 math, I can't tell you how many times I had to go back to a textbook to
remind me how to solve a problem," says Craig Dunn. He is the president of
WellDunn Consulting, a geological consulting firm. "Do your math homework,
it may help us save the world!"
"Most people think of
math as just 'crunching numbers,' but it's just as much about logic and problem
solving. I use those skills every day for things like figuring out how to
set up problems and knowing what conclusions can be drawn. Just knowing how
to set up a problem so that it can be solved or approximated can be a challenge,"
says Bonnie Jonkman. She is a scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.