Betty’s Pies

In Two Harbors, on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior is a popular stopping point for vacationers: Betty’s Pies.

This restaurant moves a tremendous amount of pie each year. How much? Well, I’m not really sure because there was a smudge on the fact sheet on my menu.

Middle of the image: “Our bakers make…” (Please ignore the bold, oversized italic typo in the last line)

So how about it? How many pies do you think Betty’s Pies makes each year? Let me know how you think about it in the comments, OK?

Then you can click here to see the rest of Betty’s sign. Is it a good representation of how she cuts her pies?

Finally, you can view an unsmudged version of the menu to check your answer. (No cheating!)

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Questions from middle schoolers VII: Proper factors

Why do we talk about “proper factors” but not “proper multiples”?

Good question.

I had never thought about this before. A colleague and I are thinking about this. My colleague’s guess is that in number theory (the mathematical field that deals with this stuff), there are some things that are true of proper factors that are not true of the number itself, and that this is not a problem with multiples.

But I don’t really know for sure. I’ll find out.