Real-Life Math
You're working for a company called Pie in the Sky that specializes in manufacturing frozen pies. You have just come up with a package that will preserve the freshness of the pie, prevent against microbes entering the package and stop any food product leakage.
Believe it or not, you used quite a bit of math to design this packaging!
The amount of math that biosystems engineers use depends on the job they're doing. Are they working in food packaging, on environmental issues or with water samples? Are they working in research and development or in the actual design phase of the project?
"At the technical end of the business where I'm working, we use a lot of math," says Elmer Sachvie. He is a biosystems lab services manager. "I'm doing calculations all the time."
In general, Canada uses metric and the United States uses the imperial system. "Because of this, conversions need to be made back and forth," says Sachvie. "When you're talking about inches to centimeters, that's pretty easy. But when you talk about yields and other factors, conversions can get complex."
Currently, you're writing the nutritional information and cooking instructions that must be clearly labeled on the outside of each pie box. The instructions will tell the customers to bake the pie for 25 minutes at 350 F, and then to cook it for an additional 10 minutes at 375 F.
If you want to sell the pies in Canada, you must convert these temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius. What temperatures will you tell the customers in Canada to use?
Remember: To convert Fahrenheit degrees to Celsius: subtract 32, multiply by 5, and divide by 9.