In the beginning of the film, Gale mentioned about his name being submitted 47 times. Later on, when Katniss volunteered as tribute and was given a few minutes to speak to her family, she told her sister Prim that she shouldn’t take food to the peacekeepers because it wasn’t worth putting her name in more times. What does his all mean. I don’t think it was well explained in the movie.
shareThey are referring to the tesserae system. In addition to the mandatory entries every kid from 12 to 18 must enter, kids can also get additional supply of grain and oil by entering their names more times (thus increasing the chance of being reaped). Gale is 18 and has a mother and 3 little siblings, so he's taken out tesserae more than many others.
See this site for more details on the tesserae system: https://thehungergames.fandom.com/wiki/Tessera#:~:text=Tessera%20(plural%3A%20tesserae)%20was,could%20sign%20up%20for%20tesserae.
I think it's also true that your name goes in once when you're 12, twice when you're 13, three times when you're 14, etc. So Gale's name would be in 7 times, just for his age, in addition to the tesserae, which he took out for himself, his mom and each of three his siblings.
So, that's 1 each year for his age and 5 each year for tesserae (Gale, 3 siblings, 1 mom). Altogether that's:
12 years old (1st year) - 1 x 6 = 6 times
13 years old (2nd year) - 2 x 6 = 12 times
14 years old (3rd year) - 3 x 6 = 18 times
...
18 years old (7th year) - 7 x 6 = 42 times
This is close. The result is the same, but the math is a little off.
It's the base entry, plus one for each tessera. Tesserae are then cumulative year to year.
Gale's tesserae = Gale + mother + 3 siblings = 5 per year
12 years old (1st year) - 1 (base) + 5 (Gale, mother, 3 siblings) = 6 times
13 years old (2nd year) - 2 (base) + 5 (previous year tesserae) + 5 (current year tesserae) = 12 times
14 years old (3rd year) - 3 (base) + 10 (previous year tesserae) + 5 (current year tesserae) = 18 times
15 years old: 4 + 15 + 5 = 24
16 years old: 5 + 20 + 5 = 30
17 years old: 6 + 25 + 5 = 36
18 years old (7th year): 7 + 30 + 5 = 42 times
You become eligible for the reaping the day you turn twelve. That year, your name is entered once. At thirteen, twice. and so on and so on until you reach the age of eighteen, the final year of eligibility, when your name goes into the pool seven times.
Each tessera is worth a meager year's supply of grain and oil for one person. You may do this for each of your family members as well. So, at the age of twelve, I had my name entered four times. Once, because I had to, and three times for tesserae for grain and oil for myself, Prim and my mother. In fact, every year I have need to do this. And the entries are cumulative. So now, at the age of sixteen, my name will be in the reaping twenty times. Gale, who is eighteen and has been either helping or single-handedly feeding a family of five for seven years, will have his name in forty-two times.share
The math is not off at all. The math is exactly the same, except I combined like terms before multiplying and you used the Distributive Property.
shareWhere did you get the six to multiply by the yearly base?
It's completely different math even if the result is the same.
In year one, it's 1 time for the base, plus 5 for the tesserae. Where do you get 1 times 6?
The 1st year you have base + tesserae = 1 + 5 = 6
The 2nd year you have 2(base) + previous tesserae + tesserae,
which is the same thing as 2(base) + 2 tesserae
And this is the same thing as saying 2(base + tesserae)
The 3rd year you have 3(base) + previous tesserae + tesserae,
= 3(base) + 2 tesserae + tesserae,
= 3(base) + 3 tesserae,
And this is the same thing as saying 3(base + tesserae)
The 4th year you have 4(base) + previous tesserae + tesserae,
= 4(base) + 3 tesserae + tesserae,
= 4(base) + 4 tesserae,
And this is the same thing as saying 4(base + tesserae)
OK, so it's looks like this is the part I'm missing.
You're using the year as a multiplier to both the base and the tesserae (Base = 1 tesserae = 5), then factoring out the year and adding the base (1) and tesserae (5) together to get your factor of 6. Then multiplying the resulting factor back to the year as the multiplier.
y(b) + y(t)
y(b+t)
y(f) where f=b+t
I rescind my statement. The math is, in fact, correct.
However, it may not be the most effective way to illustrate how the tesserae work to the OP.