Question

Mrs. Cunningturkey works at Mabash College as an executive assistant to the universally reviled President Less. President Less is widely known to care nothing about students, and every day chooses a random student car to tow away and crush for scrap metal.

On Monday morning, Mrs. Cunningturkey arrives to President Less’ office promptly at 0750. There she discovers the corpse of President Less and the murder weapon: a chicken leg from the nearby Starks Center. The body shows clear signs of blunt force trauma. At 0800, detectives from the Trawfordshire Police Department arrive and begin an investigation. The coroner notes that the temperature of the corpse is 32◦C and that the room temperature is 25◦C. Two hours later, the corpse is 31◦C. Assume that normal human body temperature is 37◦C.

The following people were seen in the vicinity of President Less’ office over the weekend:

• Professor Trix, who sometimes smokes cigars with President Less, was noticed leaving the building at 2200 the night before. However, President Less recently smoked a bunch of the professor’s favorite Cubans without him.

• Major Mustard, who is in charge of the Car Towing and Crushing Brigade, was seen in the parking lot at 2100 the night before. Major Mustard and President Less recently had an argument about money raised from the towing and crushing business. Major Mustard was especially concerned with the fact that another university’s towing and crushing business might ketchup.

• Muscles McTouchdown, captain of the football team and recent tow/crush victim, was seen running across campus towards the Beta Rho Omicron fraternity at midnight. He was overheard muttering “I’ve got him this time!

• Mark Bosak, a frequent critic of President Less in the campus publication The Spouseless, was seen walking in the direction of President Less’ office at 0100.

Investigators from the Trawfordshire Special Mathematics Unit also become involved, since mathematical crimes are considered especially heinous (these are their stories). They discover that President Less had been secretly embezzling funds from the tow/crush scheme. In 2018, he decided to take money he had made from the scheme and park it in two different banks:

• $10,000 with Tax-Dodge Bank, of the Cayman Islands. The account pays 5% interest compounded monthly.

• $15,000 with Euler Bank, based in Switzerland. This account pays only 4% but, befitting the name, compounds continuously.

(1) How fast is the body cooling at 0800? At 1000?

(2) Who is your chief suspect for the murder of President Less, and why?

(3) How much money will be in both secret bank accounts after 25 years?

Submit your evidence to your instructor by 1600 Friday. Your writing and exposition should be clear and concise, and good enough that a juror who knows some calculus (but not about Newton’s Law of Cooling or compound interest) would be able to read it!

Answer 1