On a busy road, the traffic can stretch for miles and miles. And that’s just one road…try picturing in your head all the cars in the world! There are more than 1 billion cars out there (1,000,000,000). A million is a thousand thousands, and a billion is a thousand millions, so that’s a huge number. In the U.S. alone, there are 291 million cars for just 332 million people!
Wee ones: If you just count 4 blue cars on the road, what number do you say before 4?
Little kids: If 5 houses on your block each have a 2-car garage, how many cars can they hold together? Count up by 2s! Bonus: If on the road the 1st car in front of you is red, then the 4th car, then the 7th car…what’s the next red car to keep up the pattern?
Big kids: If people in your town bought 100 new cars this month, but 91 old cars went to the junkyard, how many more working cars are there now than a month ago? Bonus: If every U.S. car owner had 2 cars of those 240 million, how many people would have cars — and how many of the 320 million Americans would NOT have a car?
The sky’s the limit: There were 500 million cars in 1986, so it doubled by 2010. If it always takes the same amount of time to double, when will we have 4 billion cars?
Answers:
Wee ones: 3.
Little kids: 10 (2, 4, 6, 8, 10). Bonus: The 10th car, since every 3rd car is red.
Big kids: 9 more cars. Bonus: Only 120 million people would have a car, so 200 million would not.
The sky’s the limit: The year 2058. It took 24 years to double that 1st time. To reach 4 billion, we need to double from 1 to 2 billion, then from 2 to 4 billion. Each of those 2 jumps takes 24 years, for a total of 48 years after 2010.
