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From "Mt. Graham squirrel population found to be growing": "A conservative estimate of the number of red squirrels on the mountain near Safford is 562, according to a recent survey conducted by the Arizona Game and Fish Department." Last year the number of squirrels was 462. "Ten years ago in a spring survey, biologists estimated that there were 167 red squirrels."
From: Record Number of Big Game Permits Approved for Hunters": "For deer during this past year, there has been a healthy increase in fawn recruitment, which in turn is translating into a 841-permit increase this year. Fawn recruitment statewide increased to nearly 40 fawn per 100 does, from a low of 20 or 30 in most areas of the state. On the Kaibab Plateau, there has been a different climatic regime than we have experienced in the rest of the state for the past several years, and the corresponding recruitment has been nearly 90 fawn per 100 does." 1. If the percent of increase in permits corresponds to the percent increase in numbers of deer statewide, how many deer permits were there last year?
From "Viral Gene Screen": Thanks to serological tests and rigorous screening, the U.S. blood supply is safer than ever before. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t any bad blood in the nation: although there is only a one in 676,000 chance that blood containing HIV will slip by standard tests, as many as 14 million units are donated every year. The liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus can elude standard tests with a frequency nearly seven times greater than that for HIV. An infected person could donate during the window period—the time between contraction of the virus and an immune response, when the person may not even feel sick or show any symptoms. The tainted blood could then be divided into its several useful components and go on to infect recipients. For HIV, this window period is about 16 days; for the hepatitis C virus, about 70to 80 days. For the past few months, the Red Cross has used master pools of 128 samples, which are made up of eight smaller primary pools of 16 samples each. If a master pool tests positive, then each of the eight primary pools are tested, and so on until the infect blood sample is found."
From "Protection Didn’t Work So 25 Workers Poisoned by Beryllium Now Risk Death": Twenty-five people may die because they worked in a Tucson manufacturing plant where the government and the company failed to protect them from a hazardous metal. Two can no longer breathe on their own. All have an industrial disease that slowly eats away at the lungs. The 25 workers with chronic lung disease are among 907 people who worked at the Tucson plant since it opened in 1980. Workers had been told in handouts and training videos through the 1980’s that less than 1 percent of people were susceptible to beryllium disease. The company now pegs the risk at 4 percent. A 1949 standard says workers can’t be exposed to an average of more than two micrograms per cubic meter of air over eight hours. A 1982 air sample found airborne beryllium at 488 micrograms per meter.
From "List of Free Countries Gains 7 This Year": According to the report, titled "A Good Year for Freedom," 46 percent of the world’s countries are now free and another 28 percent are partly free, meaning they grant their citizens some rights, although they are often corrupt or have a weak respect for laws. There are now 88 free countries, seven more than last year."
From "Many Are the Ways to Cut Down Water Use": A leaky toilet, according to experts, can waste up to 200 gallons of water each day. I had to replace the flush ball because it was damaged and no longer fit snugly on the flush-ball seat…The job took an hour…and cost $2.99 for the new flush ball. The average American uses 27,000 gallons of water a year. Up to 65 percent or that is used outdoors, primarily for watering lawns and washing cars. Daily per capita water use is 74 gallons. Nineteen gallons…is used for flushing toilets. Clothes washers use 16.8 gallons, showers, 13.2 gallons, faucets account for 11.4 gallons. Finding the leaks and installing water-saving fixtures can reduce per capita consumption to 51.9 gallons a day. 1.6 gallon-per-flush low-flows saved 44 million gallons a day in houses built last year. 1. How many days could the leak in a toilet continue before the cost of the water used would exceed $2.99. 2. How much of the water used by the average American each year is used outdoors? 3. Draw a chart comparing the percentage by uses of water. 4. By what percent will fixing leaks and installing water-saving fixtures reduce the per capita consumption of water: 5. How many 1.6 gallons-per-flush toilets were installed in houses built last year?
Nearly 150 million workers and their employers pay taxes on wages. The tax is 6.2% for the worker and an identical amount for the employer, on salaries up to $72,600 in 1999. The money collected from payroll taxes goes to pay monthly benefits to 45 million beneficiaries. These include
Social Security paid out about $382 billion in benefits in 1998, the biggest single federal expenditure, and 20% of the total federal budget.
You need 10 years of work to qualify for benefits. The size of the monthly check is linked to earnings during your working career. The average person, someone who earned about $27,000 in 1997 will get a benefit at age 65 equal to about 42% of his or her earnings. As of January 1999 the average payment for all retired workers is $780 per month. 1. How much money is collected by Social security? 2. How much would each person receive if the money were distributed equally among all the beneficiaries? 3. How does the amount collected compare with the amount paid out? 4. What is the total federal budget? 5. What will be the amount of the monthly check of someone who earned about $27,000 in 1997? 6. What is the average annual income for a retired worker? 7. Discuss the graph below, giving at least three observations about the trends exhibited by the graph.
From "Letters to the Editor": "While most agencies are struggling to do more with less, the Census Bureau has a long history of doing less with more. In 1790, each of the 650 cen\sus counters counted about 6000 citizens,. IN 1890, each of the 47,000 counters only counted bout 1300 citizens. In 1990, with all the high technology tools available to them, each member of the army of 510,000 counters counted less than 500 citizens. At this rate in the year 2340, there will be one census counter for every citizen."
1. Is the assertion that in the year 2340 there will be one census counter for every citizen true? 2. What type of mathematical model did this person use to analyze the trend?
From an advertisement byHewlett-Packard: The reader is asked to make a dot on the page with a pen. "Now do that 5,952,000 times in a second and you’ll understand Hewlett-Packard’s Color layering Technology." 1. How many dots per minute can the Hewlett-Packard printer make? 2. How many seconds does it take to make one dot? Express your answer in scientific notation.
From "Amazon Rain Forest Disappearing Faster Than Thought": Brazil’s Amazon rain forest is being destroyed or badly damaged more than twice as fast as normally believed, according to a study that relied on airplane surveys and on-the-ground interviews instead of satellite images. The researchers said their method more accurately measured the dffects of logging and burning in the 1.3 million-square-mile rain forest." They claim the loss at 17,000 square miles last year and estimated that 217,000 squre miles, or 16 percent, of the original rain forest have been spoiled over the years. 1. How big is Brazil’s rain forest? 2. If the trend continues how long will it take to destroy the rain forest completely if the growth is linear? 3. If the trend continues how long will it take to destroy the rain forest completely if the growth is exponential?
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Copyright © 1999 [Shay Cardell]. All rights reserved.
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