Not only is July National Ice Cream Month, it’s also National Hot Dog Month, and today is National Hot Dog Day! Americans eat 20 billion hot dogs every year, with 7 billion of those eaten just during the summer. The biggest hot dog ever was made in 2011 in Paraguay, in South America: it measured 669 feet long and weighed 264 pounds. The question is, how many bites did it take to eat that one?
Wee ones: If you take 6 bites to eat your hot dog, what numbers would you say to count them off?
Little kids: They say 9 out of 10 grown-ups squirt mustard on their hot dogs. How many of those 10 grown-ups don’t? Bonus: If you eat a plain hot dog, then one with ketchup, then one with mustard, then start over with a plain dog, what kind of dog do you eat 11th?
Big kids: If you eat 1 hot dog the first day of July, 4 the second day, and 9 on the third day…how many do you probably eat on the 4th day? Bonus: If you and your friends each weigh 50 pounds, do 5 of you together weigh as much as the record 264-pound hot dog?
The sky’s the limit: If only 200 million Americans like hot dogs, and together they eat 20 billion hot dogs a year, how many hot dogs per person is that? (Hint if needed: What if each person ate 10 hot dogs?)
Answers:
Wee ones: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Little kids: 1 grown-up. Bonus: Ketchup, since it’s 2 hot dogs after the 9th, which gets mustard.
Big kids: 16 hot dogs – ugh! Bonus: No – the 5 of you weigh only 250 pounds.
The sky’s the limit: 100 hot dogs per person. 10 per person would bring you to 2 billion dogs, so you need 10 times as many as that.
