Our kitchen floor was in need of something (repair, replacement, rejuvenation?). This being the do-it-yourself age, we took ourselves to the nearest big box home store, and picked out a lovely laminate flooring in a pattern that looks like tile. The ads and the instructions all make it sound like a pretty simple project. We brought it home and set to work. Immediately, we ran into a problem (Fig. 1). Our breakfast nook is in an octagonal shape. This means no matter which wall we started on, we immediately had to tackle an angle cut.

A lawyer's use of some very simple science and math. The facts are true, although simplified; the company names have been changed.

Acme Enameling Company operated a cast-iron foundry and enameling plant, where it made bathtubs and sinks for twenty-seven years. It dumped factory wastes on vacant property behind the plant. Zenith Construction Company then bought the property and used it as a construction waste landfill.

I introduce the concept of contour plots in the PUMAS example called Contouring and Topo Maps. Contouring is a fun way to help students develop estimation and spatial visualization skills. With contouring you imagine yourself looking down at a landscape and trying to represent hills and valleys on a flat map. The next step is to try to visualize what you see if you take a vertical slice, a cross section, out of your landscape.