I can’t wrap my head around who much 23.2 million dollars is. I think I have a way to put it into perspective.
It was reported that just days before the Lehman Bros. bankrupcy the company sought $23.2 million dollars in “special payments’ to three outgoing executives. How much is that I asked myself?
I thought it might be useful to find a new way to measure money. I came upon the ATS. That’s Average Teacher’s Salary. The American Federation of Teachers teacher salary survey for the 2004-05 school year found that the average teacher salary was $47,602. Let that be one unit of ATS.
I divided $47,602.00 into 23,200,000.00. The result was 487.4 on the ATS scale.
This just means that the “Special Payments” that Lehman Bros. was working to get for their failed executives is worth 487 teachers for an entire school year.
I wonder how many elementary schools it would take to be filled up by 487 teachers? I wonder if those Lehman Bros. executives think the job they did on and for America are worth that many ATSs?
This year Chris Wilson built a Trebuchet to hurl pumpkins about 200 feet. He got the plans from a photo provided by Guy Cole. He downloaded a simulation program from the internet and built the trebuchet just the right size for the length of the field and the size and weight of the pumpkins we used.
The energy for the machine comes from a 500 lb. block of steel. The kids and adults pull on a rope through pulleys to cock the arm. A long blue fiberglass pole is used to raise the pulley and rope to the eye on the top of the arm. Once cocked and latched there is a safety. The ropes are pulled out of the way and the pumpkin loaded in the sling. After “All Clear!” the safety is switched to the off position and the countdown begins. We start at “Three” because who can wait to start from “Ten”? A blue rope is pulled to release the latch and the 500 lb. hunk of steel moves down as the arm and sling go into operation. The sling has two ropes and a third attachment that is slipped over a steel pin. As the arm comes up to the top of the arc the loop attachment slips off its pin and the pumpkin is hurled. Each pumpkin spins in a little different way. Keeping the stem on the pumpkin helps in observation of its orientation durning flight. At the point of impact several different actions occur. Some pumpkins just roll, some split in half and some splatter.
As part of our fundraiser for our community service projects we ask $5.00 per pumpkin or 3 for $10.00.
You can find out more about trebuchets on the web.
