81 Brazilian Diamonds

         “Comfy, Julie?”

         “It’s really hot.”

         “I’ll plug in some fans. Sit on the sofa.”

         “It’s dirty.”

         “Sorry. I would’ve cleaned up if I knew you were coming.”

         “Mom’s been bringing me every weekend. You don’t even have any food in the fridge.”

         “I’ve got a lot on my plate, sweetheart. Maybe you can help me unpack some of these old boxes later.”

         “I’m hungry.”

         “I’ll order a pizza.”

         “Do you have anything to drink?”

         “Yeah, hi. One large, plain pizza—that okay, Julie?”

         “Green peppers.”

         “With green peppers. Bottle of orange soda, too.”

         “Sprite.”

         “Make that a Sprite. That’s 18 Spencer Street. Apartment 7G.”

         “How long?”

         “They said half an hour.”

         “You should buy groceries instead of ordering in. It’s cheaper.”

         “I’ll wake up early tomorrow and go to the store. Cook you a nice breakfast. What kind of omelets do you like?”

         “I’m allergic to eggs.”

         “Since when?”

         “Since birth.”

         “I knew that. What are you working on?”

         “Math. I have a test on Monday.”

         “They had me teach math three times a week at the prison.”

         “What for?”

         “Part of the system’s education program. Helps build skills and keeps our minds occupied in a constructive way.”

         “Sounds kind of pointless.”

         “It’s good for them. Want some help?”

         “I’m fine. I just need to do these word problems.”

         “You look stuck. Here, let me take a look.”

         “Why should I care about how many buns this guy can bake in three days?”

         “Don’t get distracted by the little story they give you. Focus on the numbers and think about what they’re asking you.”

         “I’ll never use any of this in the real world.”

         “You’d be surprised.”

         “What? Someone’s going to hold a gun to my head one day and tell me to solve a word problem?”

         “Don’t think of it like that. It teaches you how to think, how to use your brain to solve problems. And some of the word problems they give you are actual real world applications.”

         “I’m just going to watch some TV until the pizza gets here.”

         “Don’t just throw in the towel like that.”

         “Since when do you care?”

         “The day you started being allergic to eggs.”

         “You’re only being nice because you’re stuck with me for the weekend.”

         “You’re right. I hate having a daughter. Now sit your butt down and let’s look at this problem together.”

         “Okay. ‘Mr. Baker has 20 buns. He needs to make 200 for a banquet and has only 3 days to reach his goal. How many buns does he need to make per day?’”

         “Right. First step. How many buns does he already have?”

         “Twenty.”

         “So he needs how many more to reach his total?”

         “200 minus 20—a hundred and eighty.”

         “Good. What’s his deadline?”

         “What do you mean?”

         “How long does he have to make those 180 buns?”

         “Three days.”

         “So if he wants to spread the work evenly across all those three days, how many does he need to bake each day?”

         “Why doesn’t he just make them all in one day?”

         “He could if he wants.”

         “So can’t I just put 180?”

         “You could, but that’s not what the question’s asking. It’s a division problem. You have to find out how much he needs, and then split that evenly over the three days.”

         “The question doesn’t say it has to be even.”

         “You should tell your teacher the problem isn’t worded properly. For now, you can assume it has to be even. They’re not trying to trick you.”

         “I bet if I told her about it, she’d tell me to stop overthinking everything again.”

         “She said that to you?”

         “I raised my hand in class and tried to ask her about this one problem, but she told me to stop talking back to her.”

         “She doesn’t seem like a very good teacher if you ask me.”

         “It isn’t fair. Jane Butterfield sits in front and Mrs. Nelson always calls on her.”

         “That’s because some people like to have their asses kissed, and others just like to pucker up and kiss ass.”

         “Daddy!”

         “And trust me, you don’t want to be either of those people.”

         “I’m just afraid if I see another problem like this on the test, I won’t know what to do. If I overthink it, I’ll run out of time and I won’t finish again.”

         “Let’s try a real world example.”

         “I just want to get this done, Dad.”

         “It won’t take long. When I’m finished, I promise it’ll makes sense.”

         “Just hurry.”

         “Okay, so this gang is planning a heist, and they—”

         “What’s a heist?”

         “It’s like a robbery.”

         “What are they robbing?”

         “Don’t worry about that; just listen. They cracked this vault and only have 12 minutes before the cops come. If they don’t finish in time, they go to jail.”

         “I can’t solve the problem without more information.”

         “Very good. So they have 12 minutes. The vault has 81 Brazilian diamonds in it. If it takes three minutes for them to close the vault door and cover their tracks, how many diamonds do they need to load every minute?”

         “Why are they stealing the diamonds?”

         “It doesn’t matter why.”

         “How many robbers are there?”

         “Three. But that doesn’t matter, either.”

         “But it does. If there’s one guy, it’s simpler.”

         “Three people gets the job done faster.”

         “But if there’s more than one guy, they might get in each other’s way. One of them might be slower than the rest. It’s hard to tell how long it takes.”

         “Well, they only have twelve minutes.”

“Why do you need three guys?”

         “Julie, it’s just an example.”

         “Do the three guys have any special skills? Are they doing anything else other than grabbing the diamonds?”

         “One guy hacks the computers, one guy cracks the vault, and the third guy makes sure the other guys are doing their jobs.”

         “Have they ever done this before?”

         “Let’s say they’ve had a lot of practice. They know what they’re doing.”

         “Other heists?”

         “Don’t worry about those details. Assume they’re doing an assembly line type of thing. They’re just handing the stones to one another and working at the same speed the whole time. If it takes three minutes to cover their tracks, what’s their time window to move and load the stones?”

         “Nine minutes.”

         “So we have 81 stones, and we have 9 minutes. How many stones each minute if they work at a steady pace?”

         “Nine every minute.”

         “Feels good when things come together, doesn’t it?”

         “I liked the example.”

         “Good. I’m glad I could help you understand it better. The only thing I’d say—”

“Did the heist work?”

“See? You’re still getting hung up on the details.”

         “You said it was a real world example. The details matter in the real world.”

         “Yeah, but not in the math problem. If you overthink something and look at too many angles, you’ll waste time and the whole thing folds on you.”

         “Is that what you do?”

         “That’s what I tell the inmates when I teach.”

         “For the math problems.”

         “That’s right. It teaches them how to think in the real world.”

         “But in the real world, the details matter.”

         “Sometimes.”

         “If you don’t plan ahead, you’ll run out of time.”

         “Pizza’s almost here. How many problems do you have left?”

         “Three.”

         “Need me to give you another example? I can think of a few off the top of my head.”

         “That’s okay. I think I got it.”