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To pay for printing in our computer lab, patrons have to use a thing called a "Cash to Chip" machine to add value to the chip on their card. Most people only want (or need) to add $1 at a time, so we are constantly breaking fives, tens, and twenties.
Consequently, we use up dollar bills at a pretty fast rate; I put $50 in each night for the next day, and when I count up at the end of the day, it's generally down in the $30 range (sometimes lower), even with taking in dollar bills from other sources (fines, disks, and the occasional dollar print card).
If that machine is not working, however, and everyone is having to buy $1 print cards until the guys from EFM come around to fix it, they all miraculously have dollar bills and we wind up with a surplus at the end of the day!
How does this work? Why do people have the dollar in one situation and need to break large change in the other? You'd think it would work out the same either way, but it emphatically does not. I don't get it.
Consequently, we use up dollar bills at a pretty fast rate; I put $50 in each night for the next day, and when I count up at the end of the day, it's generally down in the $30 range (sometimes lower), even with taking in dollar bills from other sources (fines, disks, and the occasional dollar print card).
If that machine is not working, however, and everyone is having to buy $1 print cards until the guys from EFM come around to fix it, they all miraculously have dollar bills and we wind up with a surplus at the end of the day!
How does this work? Why do people have the dollar in one situation and need to break large change in the other? You'd think it would work out the same either way, but it emphatically does not. I don't get it.
