Profit Margin vs. Profit Markup…Show Me The Money!

One of the most important factors of running a business is staying in business.  That might sound a little redundant, but I’m sure you’ve seen businesses start and businesses fail in just about any aspect of your community.  Why do so many businesses fail?  Usually it is because they spend more money than they make.  The difference between how much you spend (cost), and how much money you bring in (revenue), is profit.  And profit is the main focus on how successful a business is.

So now that we know how important profit is, we need to look at the two main ways that profit is calculated.  As stated above, profit is the difference between how much money is spent and how much is generated.  Usually profit is measured as a percentage in either Profit Margin, or Profit Markup.  

Profit Margin is calculated as the percentage of profit when compared to the total sales price.  Profit Markup is calculated as a percentage increase over the cost.

For example:  If you work at a clothing store and you have a 25% markup on a pair of jeans that has a cost of $40.00, your sales price would be $40.00 plus 25% of $40.00.  This comes out to a sales price of $50.00.

For an example of Profit Margin:  Using the same story, you have a sales price of $50.00.  Your cost is $40.00.  Your total profit is $10.00. $10.00 is 20% of $50.00.  Your margin is 20%.

Sometimes it can be confusing, but you have the same dollar amount of profit, you are just measuring it differently.

To learn more about these terms, follow the links below:

Profit Calculator                      Profit Margin                   Profit Markup

Now that you know how to calculate margin, go out there and become a captain of industry!

CalcuNATION is a website featuring online calculators and educational resources for mathematics.  Other Mathematical Blogs ( CalcuNATION on EduBlogs and CalcuNATION on Blogger)

Pharaoh Wants To Know....Pyramid Math

Made famous by the ancient Pharaohs centuries ago, pyramids are shapes that have taken their place in history.  The Pyramids of Giza are one of the ancient wonders of the world.  With the centuries of time and weather, they have been proven to be some of the sturdiest man-made structures in the history of man-kind.  With all the pressures of designing one of the most important structures in human history, what kind of math did the ancient engineers need to know?

Well, perhaps they started with volume and area.

Before determining the volume or area, we first need to determine what type of pyramid we are working with.  Pyramids can have many different variations.  Usually there are two ways to classify a pyramid.  First is the base.  Many pyramids, like the Pyramids of Giza, are square base pyramids, but the base can also be a triangle, rectangle, pentagon, etc.  As long as the base has at least 3 sides, it can stand upright.  All pyramids have triangular sides that meet at a point on top.  However, a pyramid that has the top point directly over the center of the base will have equal triangular sides all around and is referred to as a “regular” pyramid.  If the top point is not over the center of the base and not all of the sides are the same, this is an “irregular” pyramid. The Pyramids of Giza are square regular pyramids with all of the triangular sides of equal shape, and the top point directly over the center of the square base.

Determining the surface area of a pyramid is fairly basic.  To determine the total surface area, you simply add the individual areas of the lateral sides and the base.  On a square regular pyramid, like the Pyramids of Giza, you would add the areas of the 4 individual triangular sides and the base.  On a regular triangular pyramid, you would add the areas of the 3 individual triangular sides with the area of the base.

To learn more about the calculation of the surface area of a regular square pyramid or a regular triangular pyramid, follow these links:

Surface Area Regular Square Pyramid               Surface Area Regular Triangular Pyramid

When the ancient engineers were thinking about how much material was needed to build the massive pyramids, they most likely needed to determine the volume.  The first step to determining the volume of a pyramid is still to identify what type of pyramid you are working with.  Once you have determined the type, find the area of the base and multiply the base area by 1/3^rd of the total pyramid height.

To learn more about the calculation of the volume of pyramids, follow this link:

Pyramid Volume Calculator

So when it’s time for you to build a new home, maybe you should look into building a pyramid.  After all, it may last longer than you.

CalcuNATION is a website featuring online calculators and educational resources for mathematics.  Other Mathematical Blogs ( CalcuNATION on EduBlogs and CalcuNATION on Blogger)

The Heat Index. Is it Hot Enough for Ya?

I don’t know about you, but I seem to always take a moment to look at what the weather is going to be like for the day, or week, ahead.  I have lived in some hot areas of the world and I always get a little nasty feeling whenever a meteorologist mentions the heat and dramatically throws out the calculated heat index.  As if it isn’t hot enough already, it seems like the weather folks love to point out that you’ll be even more miserable than you thought.  And if you really look into how the heat index works, you will realize that it truly is a mathematical gauge for misery.

The heat index is calculated from a mathematical formula that combines the air temperature and the amount of water in the air to determine what the outside air temperature “feels” like if it were a dry day.  This doesn’t sound very exact, but it is pretty common that people notice that they sweat more and it “feels” hotter when there is a lot of humidity in the air.  An 85 degree day (we’re working with Fahrenheit for our example) with 80% humidity is going to “feel” miserably hot compared to a 90 degree day with 0% humidity.  Or, at least to a large sampling of the population, it would be miserable.

As an example of the extreme misery that the Heat Index can bring on to us, let’s take a look at a potential real life example:

Let’s say you live in the Everglades in Florida.  It’s not unusual to have a summer day in the mid 90’s. Because it’s a swampy area, it wouldn’t be unusual to have a high humidity in the air.  If you had a day that was 95 degrees Fahrenheit and 85% humidity, the heat index would tell you that your body will feel as though it is 140 degrees outside.  That is ridiculous!  In some parts of the world the heat index can get a lot further up there.

To learn more about how the heat index is calculated, follow these links:
Heat Index Calculator (Fahrenheit)     Heat Index Calculator (Celsius)

Although we talk about the heat index with mockery and disbelief, it is an important tool when preparing for hot days.  When the heat index is high, we need to keep very close watch on our bodies for threats of dehydration, heat stroke, and fatigue.

While the heat index likes to make us miserable when it’s hot out, its cousin, the wind chill factor, is also a gauge of what the temperature “feels” like to our sensitive bodies.  Unlike the heat index, wind chill is found from an equation that considers temperature and wind speed. 

Go to the Calcunation Temperature Menu to learn more about wind chill, temperature, and heat indices.

CalcuNATION is a website featuring online calculators and educational resources for mathematics.  Other Mathematical Blogs ( CalcuNATION on EduBlogs and CalcuNATION on Blogger)