Goats eat just about anything: meat, veggies, cardboard, clothing – and plain old grass, too. That’s why the company Goats R Us is so smart: they use goats to mow people’s lawns. Why push a lawn mower when a goat is happy to chew down that grass for you? Goats R Us owns hundreds of goats, and places like airports and big companies hire those goats to keep their grass nice and short. And the goats get to eat while they work.
Wee ones: If you’re in charge of 6 goats, what numbers do you say to count them? Put 6 things on the counter and count them up.
Little kids: If the goats start their job in June and finish the next month, in what month do they finish? Bonus: If it takes them exactly 2 months to eat through all of Berkeley Lab, how many times can they clear the lawn in 1 year? (Hint if needed: A year has 12 months.)
Big kids: If the goats take 5 weeks to eat through the lab’s whole space, how many days is that? Bonus: How many hooves do those 800 trotting goats have?
The sky’s the limit: If the perimeter (the distance around the edge) of a rectangular field is 40 feet, and the sides are all round numbers of feet, what’s the biggest area of grass it could hold for the goats to eat?
Answers:
Wee ones: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Little kids: In July. Bonus: 6 times in a year.
Big kids: 35 days. Bonus: 3,200 hooves.
The sky’s the limit: 100 square feet, or 10 feet per side (10+10+10+10). For any amount of edge, the most area it can contain will be the perfect square that uses that amount of fence. So we divide the perimeter by 4 to get the 4 equal sides of a square.
