A guided classroom exercise that contributes to the long-term development of creative thinking and analysis.

Motivating honest budgets and profit expectations is difficult because some rnsubordinate managers will provide overly optimistic budgets to "look good" to rntheir bosses, while others will lowball budgets so they will "look good" when they rnexceed expectations. This paper explains how to motivate accurate forecasts of rnbudgets and profits.

The non-zero digits can be organized into a 3-by-3 array such that each row, rneach column, and each diagonal adds up to the same total. How many solutions rnare there? Find and describe them.

Lava lamps are just cool, that's all there is to it. Most everyone has spent at least an hour of their life just staring at a lava lamp. While the experiment outlined here isn't really the same as a commercial lava lamp it does demonstrate many of the important fluid and thermodynamic properties. Most importantly it provides students with an interesting and fun visual demonstration intended to motivate thought about the physics behind the experiment itself.

What powerful mathematical tool do you use everyday? If you have ever considered how much food you can eat and still leave room for dessert, or made a rough calculation of how long it will take to travel to school, you are using estimates to help guide and inform your decisions.

When approaching an airport, pilots must learn to maneuver their aircraft visually, so that a stabilized approach to the runway can be flown at a constant approach angle. Precise approach planning insures a smooth transition to a landing within the Touchdown Zone (1) of the runway. Pilots must sometimes execute visual approaches that are varied in size, shape, and angle based upon a variety of factors such as: other aircraft, obstructions, noise abatement, or prevailing weather conditions. The standard approach angle however, is 3°.

This simple example shows how algebra can be useful in the real world: Should Grandpa start receiving his Social Security Benefits at age 62 or should he wait until age 65?