People who build the zoo walls really need to know how high animals can jump. A jaguar can leap 10 feet high off the ground, and some kangaroos can rocket 20 feet through the air. An anteater, though, isn’t quite as bouncy…he probably needs just a 3-foot fence. Other animals might climb instead, so their walls had better be slippery. Good thing the giraffes can’t jump!
Wee ones: Which is higher, the antelope’s 8-foot fence or the anteater’s 3-foot fence?
Little kids: If a 6-foot anteater that tries REALLY hard can jump 3 feet, and you can jump 1 foot farther, how far can you jump? Bonus: A red kangaroo can jump 25 feet. If the stream around his pen is just 2 feet wider than that, how wide is the stream?
Big kids: If a red kangaroo makes 3 25-foot leaps in a row, how many feet does it travel? Bonus: If the zoo divides a 50-foot-wide square into 4 equal square pens, with a fence all around, a fence running through the middle back to front, and another through the middle left to right, how much fence does the zoo need?
Answers:
Wee ones: The antelope’s 8-foot fence.
Little kids: 4 feet. Bonus: 27 feet.
Big kids: 75 feet. Bonus: 300 feet total: 200 around the edge, then a 50-foot piece across and another 50-foot piece back to front.
