It wasn’t easy catching this image while driving over the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, but it turned out well!
Challenge Teaching
Fun With Folding: Centroid
Here’s another entry from my Fun With Folding series: folding the centroid of a triangle! The centroid of a triangle has a lot of interesting properties, most notably serving as the center of mass of the triangle.
To fold your way to the centroid, use the midpoint fold three times to construct midpoints of each side of the triangle. Then, fold the line through each vertex and opposite midpoint. (Click here to find instructions for these basic folds.)
Like magic, all the medians intersect at the centroid!
Be sure to try some other fun mathematical activities with folding!
Have more Fun With Folding!
Application
Clever Carton Accounting
It is a well-known marketing principle that you’ll make more money charging the same for less than charging more for the same amount.
So I wasn’t too surprised when I noticed that something had changed about my usual 64-ounce carton of orange juice.
Instead of raising the price of the 64-ounce carton of orange juice from $3.99, the good people at Tropicana just reduced the amount of orange juice I’d get by 5 ounces. At the old price, orange juice cost around 6.25 cents per ounce. At the new price, it costs about 6.78 cents per ounce. That 5 ounce drop in quantity is effectively an 8.5 percent price increase!
I’m sure Tropicana knows that if they raised the price of a 64-ounce carton of orange juice to $4.33, some people would think twice about buying it. People are comfortable paying $3.99 for their product, and they might be uncomfortable paying $4.33 for it.
Instead, by reducing the amount, the company can effectively raise the price without disturbing the consumer’s comfort level. And since people pay more attention to price than they do to quantity, most consumers probably won’t even realize they are paying more.
And just in case they might notice, why not keep the carton the exact same size?
Related Posts
Challenge Teaching
Fun With Folding: Circumcenter
Here’s another entry from my Fun With Folding series: folding the circumcenter of a triangle! The circumcenter of a triangle is the center of the triangle’s circumscribing circle.
To fold your way to the circumcircle, use the perpendicular biscctor fold three times to construct the perpendicular bisector of each side of the triangle. (Click here to find instructions for these basic folds.)
Like magic, all the perpendicular bisectors intersect at the circumcenter!
Be sure to try some other fun mathematical activities with folding!
Have more Fun With Folding!
Challenge Teaching
Fun With Folding: Incenter
Here’s another entry from my Fun With Folding series: folding the incenter of a triangle! The incenter of a triangle has a lot of interesting properties, most of which are related to the fact that it is the center of the triangle’s unique inscribed circle.
To fold your way to the incenter, start with an arbitrary triangle and use the angle bisector fold on each angle. (Click here to find instructions for the basic folds.)
Like magic, all the angle bisectors intersect at the incenter!
Be sure to try some other fun mathematical activities with folding!
Have more Fun With Folding!