Kangaroos can jump 9 feet high in the air, right over a whole car. So what can a mini kangaroo do? Check out Scotty, the baby tammar wallaby here. He’s so small that he can sit in your hand or inside a shoe! He weighs only 10 ounces, and drinks milk from an eye dropper. Let’s do the math to find out what else Scotty can do!
Wee ones: Baby kangaroos start small, too. Who weighs more, a 5-pound wallaby or a 4-pound baby kangaroo?
Little kids: If you can fit 2 cute wallabies in each of your hands, how many can you hold all together? Bonus: One pound has 16 ounces in it. How many more ounces does the 10-ounce Scotty need to gain to weigh 1 pound?
Big kids: If Scotty can jump 10 inches, an almost-grown-up kangaroo can jump 110 inches, and a baby kangaroo can jump the number halfway between, how far can the baby kangaroo jump? Bonus: How many feet is that, and how does that compare to your height? (Reminder: A foot has 12 inches).
The sky’s the limit: If a growing kangaroo can hop 11 times as far as a wallaby and that’s 90 inches farther than the wallaby, how far can each one jump?
Answers:
Wee ones: The 5-pound wallaby.
Little kids: 4 wallabies. Bonus: 6 ounces.
Big kids: 60 inches (50 more than 10, 50 less than 110). Bonus: It’s 5 feet… see if you’re taller or shorter than that!
The sky’s the limit: The wallaby can hop 9 inches, and the kangaroo can jump 99. If the kangaroo can jump 11 times as far as the wallaby hop, that 9-inch hop is 1 part out of 11 equal parts of the jump, which means the 90 inches are the other 10 parts. So the gap of 90 inches is 10 times the wallaby’s hop, making it 9 inches.
