P/R*B is Gods-gift-to-math.

The one darn thing I'll never understand is why they didn't teach me this in grade school. (or maybe they did and I thought of it as 'math' and therefore didn't learn??)

Anyhow I've gotten by for all these years knowing only one thing about math and that is a little thingy called P/R*B. This is something math people would call a formula, but I won't because I don't wish to scare you off!

So this P/R*B thingy works like this:

Let's say you have a case of 12 beers. If you go out and grab a case of beer it'd help with this! (non drinkers substitute pop)

P = the part of something, a piece of it, not the 'whole thing' ok. Like say 4 of the beers would be a part of the whole case of beers. Makes sense right? GOOD!

Ok now B = the base of something, the whole thing, all of it. So in this case B would 12 beers. Still making sense? GREAT!

Ok now it gets a tiny bit harder, but not much, trust me if I "got it" - anyone can.

R = the rate of something, the percentage of it. If it has a .25 or a 25% for example you know you have the rate of something.

We don't have one of those here yet!

So what do we have? The Part and the Base right?

P = 4 (remember I said 4 beers...) and B = 12 (the whole case)

So to figure OUT the R (rate) We use that thingy one might call a formula P/R*B (that / is called division, but don't let that scare you, in this day and age we all have calculators. Run and grab a calculator and four of those beers for me now)

back?

Ok so let's do this!

Let's figure out what % of beer you have with those 4 beers. (I know you could do THIS one in your head but that's not the point... it gets harder when your B is 1736 and your P is 347)

Take that handy calculator and divide the P (4 beers remember) by the B (12 beers right) and guess what? You have the rate! If you did this right it'll be .3333333333333 (33% - just move that . over two spots to get the %)

Amazing? Yes. But it gets better!

Drink one of those beers, and than let's try again.

So now what's your P? (what part of the beers out of the 12 do you have sitting there? 3

So what part of B would 3 be? How would you figure it out?

P/R*B remember.

Hit 3 on the calc than divide it by 12. Answer? 25%

(

in case you didn't know this .33 = 33% and .25 = 25%)

Now! I'll need you to guzzle one more of those beers and we will have 2 left.

(This will make the explanation easier)

So now we have 2 beers left.

Sometimes you won't know the P, or you won't know the B.

Instead you'll know the R. So this time I'm giving you the R.

You have (or had anyhow) a 12 pack of beer, and you've now drunk about 17% of the beers, how many have you drunk? (Ok I know you know 2 beers, but this would get harder if it were 239 beers and you'd drunk 17% - you'd have forgotten long ago how many right?)

So how to figure THIS out?

Anytime you have the B and the R you multiplythe B and R. If it's a % you take the % and move it over and squish it together and make it look like a . (so 17% becomes .17 see how I moved that % thingy over and squeezed it into a .)

Alrighty then. Let's multiply the B and R in this case.

12 beers times .17 would be? 2.04. So to drink 17% of the beers you'd need to crack open another beer and drink some of it- oh hell just drink the whole beer!

There's one more step here any guess? What if you don't have the B? Let's say your a real lightweight and by the time you finish this 3rd beer, you don't remember how many beers are in a case. Ok.

So we have the P (part of something) the 4 beers you brought in with you. And the Rate , you know you brought in around 33% of the beers. How are we going to figure out the B?

That handy calculator again. Remember P/R*B. We have the P and R this time. Not the B (you've forgotten how many beers come in the case already, lusssssssh!) So what we need to do is find the B by dividing the P (4 beers) by the R (33%).

4 divided by .33 would = 12.121212121212

So your answer 12

Drink the rest of the beers (might as well, we are done using them for examples) and go on to the next section.

For the non drinkers among you, I'll tell this in a "real world" applicable way.

You want to figure out which of your WU's are counted in your merit. So what would our B be? 100% of your WU's. Lets say you have 620 WU's. We know that the top 25% don't count, and the bottom 25% don't count. So that's our R (anytime you see the .25 or 25% (this is the rate) you've got your R in a problem!)

So what do we need to do? Figure out what 25% of 620 is. P/R*B remember. P in this case is? .25 and B in this case is 620. So .25 X B = 155. 155 = your P!

So your bottom 155 WU's do not count in your merit. And your top 155 WU's don't count.

Now you try a few before you forget this. Notice how you always have 2 of the three P R or B??

In case one we have the R and B.

What is 25% of 50 basketballs. (R = ? B = ?) so your P would = ?

.25 / 50 = ?

Another sample?

In case two we have the P and B

You have 3 dates for tonight, you need to turn 1 down what % do you need to turn down? Your B would = ? Your P would = ?

P / B = ?

(Now what are you going to do with the other two dates?)

and finally in this case we have the P and R

I've agreed to give you 25% of my eggs, so I hand you 4 eggs. How many eggs did I have all together?

The P = ? The R = ? So the B would = ? (P divided by R)

Time now to finish 100% of the remaining beers!!

Hope someone read and learned something from this. Perhaps these days they teach this in grade school? or perhaps everyone has a cell phone with a calculator on it these days and knows how to do anything with a calculator.

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