Math Problems

 

When I went to Romania for the first time in 1990, I had no idea how much math would be involved.  When we landed in Frankfort, Germany, our first stop was a bank where we exchanged dollars for deutschmarks at the rate of $1 to 1.6 dm.  When an item was 5 dm, it was $3 (5X.6).  The next day, we crossed into Austria where the shilling was 12 to a dollar.  An item that was 100 shillings was about $8.33.  That afternoon, when we crossed into Hungary, the Hungarian forint was 250 to one dollar.  An item costing 1,000 hf was $4.  And the next day, we were in Romania where the lei was 25 to a dollar.  But then I had left-over deutschmarks, shillings, and forints to exchange into lei.  What a nightmare.  But then came the trip back home and exchanging everything back into dollars … oh, my!  Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”  If only Mrs. Buis and Miss Gaegan, my elementary school teachers, were still alive, I would have apologized to them.  So, let me go on record, I should have listened more and played less in school.  And someday, my students will say the same thing.