Would You Rather…

Gas Pump (1)

Wait in Line A or Line B to fill your vehicle with gasoline?

An assumption being made is that the hose for the gas pump will reach either side of the vehicle without any problem.

Whichever choice you make, justify your reasoning with mathematics.

Dan Meyer tackled a similar issue here with the shopping cart dilemma.

Want to tweak the numbers? You can have the original, make a copy in your Google Drive, then have at it.

4 thoughts on “Would You Rather…”

  1. The linked “shopping cart” blog-post from 2009 reminds me of a paper from several decades earlier: H.O. Pollak’s 1969 “How Can We Teach Applications of Mathematics?”

    (The foreword to 2007’s “Mathematical modelling—A conversation with Henry Pollak” begins: “Henry Pollak is, without any doubt, one of the pioneers in the field of applications and modelling in mathematics education. As early as in the sixties of the last century he pleaded for an integration of applications and modelling into mathematics teaching,” and then provides a reference to the 1969 paper.)

    Anyway: Here is the relevant excerpt, though the latter focused on questions around the ‘express lane’, specifically.

    http://i.imgur.com/VfZx7Iw.jpg

  2. I would go in line B because there were less vehicles in that line and one of them had a boat attached so it would go faster because the boat and car are a single trip.

  3. I would go in line B because there were less vehicles in that line and one of them had a boat attached so it would go faster because the boat and car are a single trip.

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