Published: August 06, 2009 08:03 pm      

Here’s how to become at ease with numbers

In my last Sunday’s column, there were some suggestions offered on how students could practice note taking (of television news shows), do more writing on a regular basis and slowly increase the amount of reading they do each day.

These suggestions were to help students make an easier transition in the first days of school classes and get off to a good start rather than face feelings of disappointment and discomfort.

Today’s column deals with an issue that affects both students and adults — using numbers skillfully so that one can avoid overspending, better time management and most importantly being in charge of their finances rather than have some one else control them.

As a science teacher of a variety of classes, I spend a good fraction of my class time helping my students use key equations. Then in the Planetarium (our Sunday public programs resume on Sept. 6) I am careful to emphasize a few key numbers each program that are crucial to our living and surviving on this very special planet.

From my experience with students and talking to adults, it seems that there is a sizable percentage who make statements such as “I’m terrible at math.” (Code for “I don’t comprehend numbers, don’t remember most numbers and have no idea of whether they are important or how to use them in my own life.”)

Often these folks have calculators (or use their cell phones as calculators). Aside from entering numbers into the calculator, they don’t know whether to add, subtract, multiply or divide. These numerophobes (fearer of numbers) avoid subjects where numbers are key, rely heavily on plastic money (so they can swipe their cards rather than paying by checks or currency) and pay key bills by sharing their card accounts with utilities so they get no such bills through the mail (avoid seeing numbers).

The big number they must confront each month is the mailed card bills with all the charges or debits indicated in very concise code. That’s is probably why an average family in America has an unpaid balance on all their credit cards of nearly $10,000.

A beginning step for someone who shuns numbers is to monitor their car mileage and its appetite for gasoline. The next time you fill up your car gas tank, be sure to zero out your trip meter (can tell mileage during a trip). Then on the following stop to get fuel, fill up your tank again, noting the miles driven (from trip meter), the number of gallons and the cost of this gasoline.

For example, suppose you have driven 200 miles since your last fillup, pumped eight gallons and have paid $20 for this gas. By dividing the miles driven by the number of gallons, you get the miles per gallon, based on your engine, type of vehicle and actual driving (gentle or harsh driving, whether stop and go driving, highway driving or a combination of the two, etc.). (For the numbers given above, 200 miles divided by 8 gallons computes to 25 miles per gallon.)

If the miles per gallon is low, try checking your tires for proper pressure, change your spark plugs, have your injection system cleaned, drive more gently and avoid short trips by linking up all your errands (groceries, bank, library, school, pharmacy, etc.)in one trip.

Another quantity that you can compute is cost per mile by dividing the total cost of the gasoline at the fill up by the number of miles driven. (For the numbers used above, $20 divided by 200 miles is 10 cents per mile.) This number will change as the price of gas per gallon varies. It will also drop as your driving habits improve and rise as you drive under worse conditions.

To check your two numbers, multiply your miles per gallon by the cost per mile and you’ll get the current price of a gallon of gas. (25 miles per gallon x 10 cents a mile gives you the price of low octane gasoline of $2.50 per gallon.)

By keeping good records of your mileage and gas purchases (cost and gallons), you’ll be able to estimate your monthly mileage and also cost of your gasoline for the month.

The moon is now shrinking in the post-midnight sky, appearing near the dull planet Mars in the 5:20 a.m. southeastern dawn on Saturday. The Perseid meteor shower may be seen either late Tuesday evening or the early morning hours Wednesday.

The half-full moon will lighten the sky, making the meteors less conspicuous. These meteors have tracks (seen in all four compass directions) that can be traced back to the star group Perseus in the northern sky.

Bob Doyle invites comments and questions from readers; his phone number is (301) 687-7799 (will record messages) and his email address is rdoyle@frostburg.edu