Tutoring by John - Serving Berkeley, San Francisco, Alameda & San Jose.
Tutoring by John - Serving Berkeley, San Francisco, Alameda & San Jose.
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog - Answers to Frequently Asked Questions and More!
  • Testimonials
  • Pricing
  • John's YouTube Tutoring
  • Need a Resume, CV, and/or Cover Letter?
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog - Answers to Frequently Asked Questions and More!
  • Testimonials
  • Pricing
  • John's YouTube Tutoring
  • Need a Resume, CV, and/or Cover Letter?

Tutoring blog! :-D

​Quick Real-Life Math Problem:

6/4/2018

0 Comments

 

 
If you’re a normal student (or former student), you probably have asked yourself why you should know algebra. “I’m not a scientist, engineer, or doctor – what’s the point?” Well, a little algebra can help you make important financial decisions, as I found a little while ago.
I have a credit card that gives me 4% “cash back” when I pay for gasoline using my credit card. Since the bank’s not paying me for advertising, I’m not going to say which bank or credit card it is. ;-)
If you live in California or some other states, you may see most gas stations charge about 10 cents per gallon more for gas paid for by credit card than by cash. So the problem is – when does it become a better idea to pay with a credit card? [Of course, that’s assuming you pay it off at the end of the month – if you can’t do that, NEVER pay with a credit card unless you absolutely have no other choice but to buy the item now. Google “credit card interest compounded daily” for more details. Here’s one result I found:  https://www.consumercredit.com/financial-education/financial-calculators/credit-card-interest-calculator But I digress. ]

The problem is simple enough : Just set up the inequality
(P + 0.10)*0.96 < P , where P is the cash price per gallon.
P + $0.10 < P/(0.96)
P +0.10 < 1.0417 P
$0.10 < 0.417 P
$2.40 < P
​
So if the cash price of the gas is more than $2.40 per gallon (as it does now), you save money with that credit card, even though you have to pay $2.50 when you use the credit card. Math is good!
 

0 Comments

A Note on “Submissions” to My Website(s)

6/4/2018

0 Comments

 


I never dreamed I’d have to write this, but since the same person has emailed me about this twice, here I go. I do not accept unsolicited content to post on my website. Any article, essay, blog, think piece, whatever you’d like to call it you send to me will not be read. In other words, as all the big publishers and production studios put it, “Unsolicited manuscripts will be returned unread,” assuming you’ve sent me a physical copy. If you’ve emailed me, I’ll just delete them without reading them. They’re not going up on any site I run.
Why am I being such a jerk, you ask? It’s simple – I don’t want to be sued by someone who says I promised them payment in the future for “free” content they sent me today. [See, for example, http://www.lawlawlandblog.com/2012/10/qa-why-are-unsolicited-submissions-policies-so-brutal-201210.html ].

That’s in addition, of course, to the obvious – I have no idea if your content is something with which I would agree, and finally, if your content’s so great, why not post it on your own website? You can get your own site literally for free (and the would-be contributor has her own site), and simply publicize your site. If I like your content, I’ll link to it (and maybe even tweet it), and you’ll get full credit for the article, since it will be on YOUR site.  

I know that 99% of the people reading this have no intention of submitting anything for publication without my requesting it, but there’s always that obnoxious and/or oblivious 1%. Thanks for reading this!

0 Comments

    Author: John Linneball Who did you think? ;-) 

    I'm the proprietor and only tutor for this business; that's why I named it after me.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly