cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
16092
Grand Complications, Part 1
Grand Complications, Part 1
Now most of us are just watch wearers, or collectors so we won't be designing a grand complication. But even moderately-skilled among us can do grand complication calculations (the more common description is higher-order thinking skills ).
This kind of problem-solving requires us to analyze the situation,
learn some new facts that we've never known before, and combine multiple
techniques or skills.
Here's an example for a WPS member:
Let's say I'm on vacation in the UK somewhere, it's hot, and I am in the pub
garden having a pint of bitter with Captain Scarlet. The glass seems
larger than a
pint glass in the USA.The price seems reasonable, but I'm not sure how
it translate to the cost of a pint back home. How can I compare them? I
want to know the equivalent cost per unit of beverage.
A fair amount of time (and pints) elapsed before I solved this grandly-complicated issue. Here are the calculations:
A pint glass in the UK and a pint glass in the USA - are they the same volume? Research tells me that a pint glass is:
- 20 fluid ounces (570 mL) in the UK [ a UK ounce=28.41 ml ]
- 16 fluid ounces (473 mL) in the USA [ a US ounce= 29.57 ml ]
No, the glasses do not contain the same volume of liquid. WHO LET THIS HAPPEN?
The
volume of the pints are different and the volume of the ounces are
different! )(_&*&%^$
The best way to find an equivalent price is to compare
equivalent volumes. Let's use a liter. We need a conversion factor we'll
call V, so we can change each of the so-called "pints" to a liter. This is becoming algebra.
- How many UK pints to a liter? 1000 ÷ 570 ml=V so V_UK=1.75
- How many US pints to a liter? 1000 ÷ 473 ml=V so V_US=2.11
A pint glass of bitter cost £5.50 in this pub. How much is that in US dollars?
- the exchange rate today is 1.15 US dollars to 1 pound sterling (Yay!)
- therefore 1.15 x £5.50=$6.33 US dollars for a UK pint
COST PER UNIT
How much is the price, in US dollars, per liter of bitters?
- UK $6.33 x 1.75=$11.07
- US $5.00 x 2.11=$15.83
It's cheaper in England. This is a very complicated problem to solve, but only simple math computation skills were needed - I used multiplication, division, solving for a variable, ratios, volume, price per unit and foreign exchange.
FURTHER COMPLICATIONS
Just as the
watch manufacturer might want to add a split-second chrono function to
UP the complication rating of his watch,
- I could ask you to time the consumption rate, using your grand complication watch, in newly-found Liter equivalents
- I could ask you the number of "units of alcohol" for all the beer we have consumed while solving this problem.
- Or we could just take a nap
This is indeed a Grand Complication Math Problem but don't worry, I'll tie this back into watches in my next post.
Cazalea
More posts:
Grand Complications, Part 1
Grand Complications, Part 1 In our world of mechanical watches, there's an honorary title known as the Grand Complication . It means that the watch performs several difficult functions, IN ADDITION to keeping the time, such as chiming the time of day, sho...
I’d love to have a beer in a tavern
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