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The Project
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August 31, 2005
Algebra, Eating, and Exercising at Sea Two weeks at sea and we are still getting fresh fruits and vegetables served to us daily. Imagine what it would be like to shop and plan meals for one whole month at sea. Remember there is no chance to go to the store during that month. When at home sometimes I go to the grocery store to buy supplies one day at a time. I remember that my mom shopped for two weeks at a time. With six hungry teens, she had two full carts at the check out. She had a special cabinet for food that needed to be kept away from snacking children. I think it would be a challenge to shop for the entire month at one time for a family.Imagine how hard it would be to do the shopping for a ship full of people! The senior cook, Eddy, on the New Horizon ordered all the food and supplies before the trip. Everything is shipped to the boatyard during the days before the ship leaves the dock. Mark says, “The meals for the month aren’t planned in advanced. We plan as we go. We use what is available. With what we have on board we can create almost anything.” We have some great meals on this ship all thanks to the two great cooks, Eddy and Mark. Meals are served buffet style with the hot food kept hot in the warmer and the cold food kept cold in the cold section of the bar. Breakfasts are at 7:15 with an assortment of breads, bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, oatmeal, fruit, juice, yogurt, and of course there is always the option of having cereal and milk. The lunch and dinner entrée is always posted early in the day. Both lunch and dinner have a nice salad bar that includes fresh spring greens, olives, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, and pickles. The options for the salad bar are varied slightly each day with beets, hearts of palm, and smoked salmon included as choices this week. Lunch is served right at 11:15. The lunch main course always has a hearty selection of two or three options. Lately we’ve had club sandwiches, vegetable soup, beef stew, and grilled cheese. Dinners are served at 5:15and they have been quite nutritional with fish and seafood options along with items like steak, pork chops, beef /broccoli teriyaki, chicken chow mien and enchiladas. Coffee and tea are fresh and available 24 hours each day. Leftovers are always stored and accessible in a refrigerator near the microwave. With everyone on different schedules this system works quite well. With a steady stream of food and little chance for exercise some people have had to exercise control when tempted to take that extra portion. If exercising control at the dinner table does not work for you there are other options. You can take up some sand paper and scrub off the persistent rust that creeps through the paint or you can workout on one of the available pieces of workout equipment. The crew works hard enough with daily maintenance, cleaning and cooking but the science team has decided to put in time on the stair stepper and the stationary bike. There is also a weight bench, hand weights, and floor mats available to anybody that chooses to burn off extra calories or just stay active. Try these problems: If you buy 10 packages of frozen salmon at $4.95 per package, what would be the total cost? Algebraically that problem would look like this: 10 (4.95) = X If I know I spent $84.15 then how many packages of salmon did I buy? Algebraically, what would the equation look like? Set it up in the same way except this time the variable is the number of packages. If you know the price has gone up and you know that you bought 22 packages and they cost a total of $124.30, then what was the price per package? Algebra is handy (and used all the time) because with a known equation you can calculate answers by substituting in the known values and solving for the unknown.
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