The Barnard Baddies have been having a rough start to college health-wise. Let’s find out just how much money the residents of the Barnard quad have spent on Kleenex as they battle the Quad cold.

Wondering just how much these first semester sniffles have cost the Quad? Don’t dispair, I did the math for you!

First, let’s assess how many people were sick this week. Given that there are about 700 residents of the quad, and roughly (according to my own estimation) 60% of them are sick, I began with the following equation to find how many people we are counting:

700 x 0.6 = 420 (lol)

My very thorough research (a trip to CVS) has led me to conclude that a regular box of 70 tissues costs $2.69 (lol once again).

To figure out the number of tissue boxes bought, I need to know how many tissues the average person uses in a cold. According to Carnegie Mellon University’s Common Cold Project, the average person uses 28.8 tissues in a day for a cold. 

As the average cold lasts eight days, I did the following math:

28.8 x 8 = 230.4 tissues per person per cold. 

Next, I multiplied the individual total by the number of affected individuals:

230.4 x 420 = 96,768

Dividing the number of tissues into their respective 70-count boxes means that 1,382.4 boxes of Kleenex were purchased. 

Finally, I multiplied the number of boxes bought by the cost:

1,382.4 x 2.69 = 3,718.66

Therefore, after doing more math than I did in my entire senior year calculus class (so sorry Mrs. Park), I can conclude that the residents of Barnard Quad, as a collective, spent $3,718.66 on Kleenex.

A representation of the quad residents rn via Bwog Archives