Baby You Can Drive My…Balloons?

Maybe you’ve been to a party where a balloon artist twists long, skinny balloons into a dog, giraffe, or other crazy shape. Usually these squishy, bouncy animals use only 4-5 balloons total. But this group of people in Tasmania, Australia looped together 87,930 balloons to make a giant car. Good thing balloons filled with regular air don’t float, or that car would zoom into the sky.

Wee ones: How many colors can you count inside each black tire?

Little kids: In the closest tire to us, which color is in the top right part of the hubcap?   Bonus: If you helped by adding a blue balloon, then a red, then a yellow, then a blue again to repeat the pattern, what color would your 10th balloon be?

Big kids: If each wheel used 50 balloons for each of the 4 color sections, plus another 100 black balloons for the tires, how many total balloons did each wheel need?  Bonus: If the 4 tires were the only black balloons used, how many of the 87,930 balloons were other colors? See if you can remember that number in your head!

The sky’s the limit: If you helped out by adding on 28 balloons, and you added twice as many blue as purple, and twice as many purple as black, how many of each color did you add?

Answers:
Wee ones: 4 colors: blue, red, purple and yellow.

Little kids: Purple balloons.  Bonus: Blue, since the 9th would be yellow to finish a set of 3.

Big kids: 300 balloons: 200 inside, plus 100 for the tire.  Bonus: 87,530 balloons.

The sky’s the limit: 16 blue, 8 purple and 4 black. For each 1 black balloon you add on 2 purple and 4 blue (double the purple). So you add them in sets of 7. Your 28 can fit 4 of those sets, which means 4 black, which then means 8 purple and 16 blue.

Recent Posts

Pick a Math Skill

Pick a Topic

50 States

Animals

Daily Routine

Entertainment

Food

History

Science and Nature

Sports

Vehicles and Transportation