Real-Life Math
Pretend you are working in the baggage sorting area for a major
airline. Every day you handle thousands of bags. Your job is to ensure the
passengers can pick up their luggage at the other end without a hitch.
This
seems simple enough, but sometimes there are problems like delays, the cancellation
of connecting flights and passengers who get off at stops before the plane
has reached its final destination.
At times, the best way to get a
passenger's luggage to its destination is to send it on a different plane
so it will be sitting on the carousel when the passenger arrives.
If
a passenger has 20 minutes to make a connecting flight, they
might make it, but the bags won't. If the passenger checks in an hour
and a half early for the flight, luggage should go out on the first available
flight to make sure the bags are there at arrival.
It's your job
to figure out which bags need special treatment in order to arrive on time.
Given the following timetable and the three-hour time difference between Los
Angeles and Detroit, what would you do? And remember, airlines run on military
time (a 24-hour clock).
At 06:30, passenger Paul Smith checks in. He
will be traveling from L.A. to New York this day. Smith is scheduled to take
the 07:30 flight to Detroit with a stop in Chicago. His total flying time,
including the stop in Chicago, is 7 hours, 35 minutes. His connecting flight
to New York leaves Detroit at 18:35 and arrives in New York at 22:40.
There
is another plane flying from L.A. through Seattle to Detroit leaving at 07:00.
Its flying time, including a stop in Seattle, is 8 hours, 10 minutes. Another
plane is flying direct from Los Angeles to Detroit leaving at 08:00. Its flying
time is 6 hours, 20 minutes. Which plane would give Paul Smith's luggage
the most time to make his connecting flight to New York?