Real-Life Math
You are an aerobics instructor who has been approached by a local
television station to host your own television show. This is a big opportunity
and you want to make sure it's a success. You've broken the news
to your aerobics students and they've all promised to tune in.
Your
next step is to put together an exercise format that works for television.
Normally, your aerobics classes are 1 hour in length. However, producers at
the television station have offered you a 1/2-hour time slot
mid-mornings. You need to put together a program that fits in this format
but will still give viewers a reasonably vigorous workout.
This is
not as easy as it sounds. First, you must plan your program around commercial
breaks. Second, the program must include a warm-up and cool-down period of
5 minutes each. As an experienced fitness instructor, you know that warm-ups
prepare the body for exercise and reduce the chance of injury. And stopping
exercise abruptly without cooling down can cause fainting.
Since it's
important to demonstrate the proper way to stretch, it's not as if you
can simply tell the audience to do a few warm-ups and cool-downs during commercial
breaks.
Finally, for your viewers to derive any benefit from the aerobics
portion, it must last at least 15 minutes.
To get a better idea of
what you'll need to do, you've written down when each commercial
break occurs in a 1/2-hour show lasting from 10:30 to 11:00 a.m., and used
a stopwatch to time their length.
1st Commercial -- 10:37:30
to 10:38:30
2nd Commercial -- 10:42:30 to 10:44:00
3rd Commercial
-- 10:49:45 to 10:51:15
4th Commercial -- 10:56:00 to 11:00:00
(Includes
Station Break)