Barbershop Math

SPLITTING HAIRS

Ralph Johnson was a mathematics professor at Southern Paulson University. He was a good instructor, and he enjoyed his work, but the faculty had not received raises in three straight years. Everyone on the staff was trying to find ways to save money. The price of gasoline had risen to $1.28 a gallon as the Nation was experiencing one of its worst recessions.

Ralph hit on the idea of buying clippers and letting his wife cut his hair. He reasoned that haircuts were costing him around $16 every month. He wore his hair in what we used to call a "crew cut." It was very short on top, and it was cut evenly all over except in the front where it was kind of squared off. In order to keep his hair neat, it was necessary to cut it every two weeks. At $8.00 a whack, he reasoned that the savings would be significant by the end of a year.

Sears had a barber's kit that consisted of the basic clippers and several attachments that would give varying depths and styles of cuts. Ralph ordered the kit, and he and his wife started practicing. The initial results were quite disastrous, but we noticed a definite improvement as time passed.

As a colleague and fellow faculty member, I was having coffee with Ralph one morning in the college cafeteria. I asked him how the experiment was coming.

"Great!", He said. "We cut my hair every two weeks, thereby saving $16 a month. The clippers are already paid for, so now I save $8.00 every two weeks."

"That sounds good," I said thinking I would have a little fun with him. "But let me tell you how to save more money. You and your wife should start cutting your hair every week instead of every two weeks. You'd save twice as much money. Let's see at $8 a week for fifty two weeks that would amount to more than $400!"

"Boy!" He said, getting into the spirit of the discussion. "What a great plan. You know if I cut it twice a week, I'd have close to $900 in one year. I could even put a down payment on a new car."

We both laughed at the absurdness of our discussion, and quickly looked to see if any of our students had overheard the talk. Certainly, the mathematics was irrefutable.