Sunday - August 25, 2013

Real Life Word Problems

And you thought 4th grade math was challenging ...

You own a gas grill. You’ve never had one before, so you buy a propane tank from next to the grill display, $30 for a new full tank. While this is called a “20 lb” tank, the label says that it only contains 15 lb of propane. When you take it for a refill, the propane guy puts 17 lb of propane in it, and you pay $20 for 20 lb of propane. For “safety” reasons, ie room for expansion when it gets hot out, the gas man only fills the tanks to 80-85%% stated capacity, even though the tanks are built to hold the full weight capacity and still have plenty of room for expansion. And that float valve thing they all have these days.

Confused? It gets better.

A new 30 lb propane tank cost $70, empty. It’s only 6” taller than the 20 lb tank, so it fits under the grill too. When you fill it up, you get charged $26 for 30 lb of propane, but you get about 25 lb.

Question:
Part 1) How many refills will it take to justify the purchase of the 30 lb tank?

Part 2) Given that the purchased-full 20 lb tank requires 3 refills to provide a full year of grilling (4 tanks full, or 68 lb), and the tank certification is good for 12 years, once you own the 20 lb tank will it EVER make sense to buy the 30 lb tank before the smaller tank is past it’s certification date?

PS The pork ribs came out superb, thanks for asking. They got cooked for an hour an a half last night, then I ran out of propane. Got a refill today, and after another hour and a half of slow grilling we had them for lunch. Yum. I think the 2 days of being in the marinade really helped.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/25/2013 at 12:37 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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