It’s fun to skip rope on your own, but it’s even more exciting when two friends swing a giant rope for you. You have to run in without tripping, then jump over and under it as it circles around. Well, as this hilarious video shows, this group of 13 dogs has gotten pretty awesome at group jumprope. The rope swings down, and all 13 dogs go flying at the exact same time to hop over. In fact, they’ve set the Guinness World Record for the greatest number of dogs jumping at once! Getting even one dog to jump rope is a trick in itself, but Uchida Geinousha’s Super Wan Wan Circus has figured it out. They taught the pooches how to skip by making it part of playtime. It has become their favorite thing to do. Now, if we could only get them to ride a unicycle…
Wee ones: Can you count to 13 to count those dogs? Try it and see how high you can go!
Little kids: If the 1st dog makes it over the rope, and the 3rd, and the 5th…which dog do you think should hop over next? Bonus: If 13 dogs try to jump but the shortest dog trips, how many make it over the rope?
Big kids: How many poodle paws do the 4 jumping poodles have? Bonus: If the circus has also trained lots of backup dogs, and these 13 dogs are just 1/4 of the total, how many dogs does the circus have?
The sky’s the limit: The world record for people skipping on the same rope is 300! How many more feet do those jumpers have than the 13 record-breaking dogs?
Answers:
Wee ones: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13!
Little kids: The 7th dog, since every other dog makes it. Bonus: 12 dogs.
Big kids: 16 paws. Bonus: 52 dogs.
The sky’s the limit: 548 more jumping feet. The people have 2 feet apiece, or 600 feet, and the 13 furry 4-footed dogs have 52 feet.
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.