Algebra in REAL Life!

Melissa Bolen
Jul 26, 2018
2 min read

It is Thursday which means sharing usable math in careers day! Today we are going to consider a very physical job and one that is not talked about too often. Today we consider the life of a BUTCHER!

We are farmers, so you will notice farming topics or homesteading topics often in my blog. Recently, we had ten steers butchered (we will discuss the benefits of grass fed beef in one of these blogs in the future). Of course, I must pay the butcher for their services which means they must calculate a bill. And to calculate the bill, they use ALGEBRA!

So here is the "word problem" that must be solved....

A farmer takes ten steers to the butcher. The butcher charges $50.00 to butcher the steers, 80 cents per pound to process the beef (this is the cutting and wrapping of the steaks, etc.), 7 cents per pound to freeze the beef, 10 cents per pound to double wrap the beef, $10.00 if any of the beef is cubed on a steer and $15.00 if you want your soup bones cut and wrapped. Your steer weights are 510, 486, 598, 758, 702, 661, 623, 587, 710, and 554 pounds.

Each steer is sold to a different family and thus each steer is processed a different way but each customer wants their beef frozen.

The family who purchased the 587 pound steer wants their beef double wrapped.

The following weights will have cubed beef: 510, 598, 661 and 710

The following weights want their soup bones: 510, 598, 702, 623, 710 and 554

How much money do I owe the butcher?

Since the butcher has to create invoices on a daily basis, he has a formula that he uses:

Let x denote the number of steer butchered.

Let y denote the pounds of beef processed.

Let z denote the pounds of beef being frozen.

Let w denote the pounds of beef being double wrapped.

Let c denote the number of steers being cubed.

Let s denote the number of steers having the soup bones cut and wrapped.