How much would that bride-price be in terms of U.S. dollars in 2009?
For extra credit, do the necessary mathematical computations and be prepared to present them to the class. Here are a few facts that will help you with your computation:
- Things Fall Apart takes place in 1900.
- You will need to determine the exchange rate of a cowrie with a U.S. dollar in 1900.
- You will need to adjust for inflation.
- Each bag contains 24,000 cowries.
Good luck! Comment here if you have the solution and are ready to present your math to the class.
3 comments:
I think I have it.
If 1 bag=24,000 cowries (c)
I found that 6400 c=$1 in 1900
how many dollars in 1 bag?
24000/6400=$3.75
using an inflation calculator $3.75 in 1900= $92.30 in 2007 (sorry, the inflation calculator only went up to 2007).
How much in 2007 dollars?
$92.30 X 20 bags = $1846
I did cross multiplication to get this. I started out with 20 bags cowries * 24,000 cowries * 1 dollar/ 1 bag cowries * 6400 cowries = $ 75 dollars in 1900. So I found an inflation calculator that went to 2009. $75 dollars in 2009 w/inflation would be: $2,218.17.
Here's the email response that I received from the district's math coordinator:
Those are definitely in the ball park. I could not find an inflation calculator that included all dates from 1900 to 2009. From 1900 to 2007, I get $1846.03 using (http://www.westegg.com/inflation/), and from 1913 to 2009 I get $1599.57 using the inflation calculator from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm) . If I take the $1846.03 from the 2007 estimate and input it into the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator to find the adjusted price for 2009, the final value is $1879.87. I’d say $1879.87 is the best answer. The credibility of the final value will be dependent on the validity of the CPI (Consumer Price Index). The inflation calculator is probably doing a simple percentage increase. The challenge is that the percent increase changes every year because of the changing CPI. Next step, ask the students to learn how the CPI is determined. They could consult their economics text for that.
Is a cowry really just a shell?
-Scott Woelber
K-12 Mathematics Coordinator
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