When a daredevil rides a bike or a skateboard off a big ramp high into the air, that’s already crazy. It’s even crazier when people drive a racecar off a ramp. So imagine doing a jump like that in a huge truck! Driver Gregg Godfrey holds the world record for the longest jump by a truck, 166 feet. He shot off the ramp at 70 miles an hour, and landed without the truck breaking apart, though it did spin while skidding to a stop. Gregg actually beat an earlier record of 62 feet, which means he’s not the only person crazy enough to try this.
Wee ones: What shape is a truck tire?
Little kids: Which has more wheels, this 10-wheel truck or an 18-wheeler? Bonus: How many more wheels does the 18-wheeler have?
Big kids: If you have some mix of 10-wheelers and 18-wheelers with 48 wheels in total, how many of each size truck must you have? Bonus: A truck cab like that weighs about 20,000 pounds. How many 4,000-lb cars would have to stack up to match that?
Answers:
Wee ones: A circle.
Little kids: An 18-wheeler. Bonus: 8 more wheels.
Big kids: 1 18-wheeler and 3 10-wheelers. Bonus: 5 cars.
Laura Bilodeau Overdeck is founder and president of Bedtime Math Foundation. Her goal is to make math as playful for kids as it was for her when she was a child. Her mom had Laura baking before she could walk, and her dad had her using power tools at a very unsafe age, measuring lengths, widths and angles in the process. Armed with this early love of numbers, Laura went on to get a BA in astrophysics from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business; she continues to star-gaze today. Laura’s other interests include her three lively children, chocolate, extreme vehicles, and Lego Mindstorms.