It was quite embarrassing… I was part of a group arranging
a large tea party. The kitchen was crowded with many good willed individuals trying
to help. Two of us were assigned to the tea preparation that included
separating small thin bags, opening them up, pouring in a quarter cup of tea
leaves, and sealing them with a curling iron…
Then came the real challenge… this time a mathematical one:
There are 105 cups in the water container. The right
amount of tea per one gallon is half a cup of tea leaves. How many (1/4 cup) bags
should we put in the water container?
I am sure it had to do with all the pressure around, the
people, the time limit, the noise, getting ready for the big event, yet I don’t
understand why I just could not figure out the right number of tea bags needed…
The people around me were ready to accept any answer I came up with, and I got
an OK for anything from 4 to 27 bags per container…
It took me a while but at last I came up with the right
answer, confirmed by recalculation on the next day, at home. But back then I still
doubted my calculation and was afraid the tea was too strong for all the older
people participating, so I took out the bags as soon as the color seemed dark
enough, and kept adding hot water to the containers…
Later on I learned that miscalculation was not the only
problem with the tea; the water was not hot, tea distribution was not even, with
no supply to some tables… but I was just thankful that no heart problems were
reported… still I was bothered by my inability to solve this simple math
problem, being a reasonably mathematically inclined person…
Interestingly enough, what grounded me at last was an old
method that I have never learned at school, nor had I ever seen it being
taught… I found it out by listening to a neighbor, (not an educated person),
explaining it to another neighbor... He called it the ‘Triangle Value’, similar
to proportion, but written differently, in a simpler way:
The top line (in my case) is: 1 gallon (water) – ½ a
cup (tea leaves)
The second line is:
6.5
gallons -
X cups
To find the X: multiply the value above the X by the
value next to it, and divide it by the value diagonal to the X…
So… after so many years of education, and in education, what
really helped me solve a real life math problem was a method I overheard from a
neighbor… isn’t it interesting?
Yet, this is not the only time I resorted to methods and
terms I did not learn at school. The basics for algebra and geometry I learned
from my cousin. Understanding fractions, setting up equations and understanding
their meaning, I learned from my grandfather… From my parents I learned values,
logic, history, geography, politics, and much more…
Maybe we don’t need schools, after all, only good,
informed, adults around us…
