Americans totally pig out on special days, and Valentine’s Day is a biggie. Together we will send 190 million valentines cards. Along with that, we will buy and eventually eat 58 million POUNDS of chocolate, much of it in the 36 million heart-shaped boxes we give. What would that look like all in one pile?!
Wee ones: Caramels are usually rectangle-shaped. How many sides does a rectangle have?
Little kids: If you get 3 Valentine cards and 2 more boxes of chocolate than that, how many boxes do you get? Bonus: If your family sends out 10 cards, and 3 go to kids while 1 goes to your dog, how many cards go to grown-ups?
Big kids: If a box of 15 candies has twice as many chocolates as nut chews, how many nut chews are in there? Bonus: If you eat one of those 14 chocolates every 5 minutes starting at 2:10 pm, will you finish the whole box by 3:30 pm?
The sky’s the limit: 58 million pounds of chocolate for 320 million people isn’t THAT much. Is it a whole 1/4 pound per person?
Answers:
Wee ones: 4 sides.
Little kids: 5 boxes of chocolate. Bonus: 6 cards.
Big kids: 5 nut chews. Each chew has 2 chocolates with it, so they’re in sets of 3, and there are 5 sets of 3 in 15. Bonus: Yes! After eating one at 2:10 pm, you’ll take 13 x 5 = 65 minutes to eat the rest, bringing you to 3:15 pm.
The sky’s the limit: It’s not even close. 1/4 pound per person for 320 million people would come to a whopping 80 million pounds. By the way, 1/4 pound is just 4 ounces, or two regular-sized candy bars.