If you like ice cream, the 3rd Sunday in July is a big day for you – National Ice Cream Day! People have loved ice cream for a long time. Even 2,400 years ago people in both Rome and China were mixing ice chips with fruit toppings. Today, ice cream mixes together cream, milk, sugar, an egg if you want it thicker and richer, and flavorings like chocolate chips, nuts, or swirls of fruit, caramel or fudge. Those ancient Romans would be jealous.
Wee ones: If you make ice cream and mix in chips, nuts, fruit AND caramel, how many flavorings do you use?
Little kids: If you order a wobbly 6-scoop ice cream cone, then get full after eating 4 scoops, how many scoops do you skip? Bonus: If you can eat a cone in 5 minutes flat, how fast could you eat 4 of them if you did have room?
Big kids: If those big bins of ice cream at the shop hold 66 scoops, how many 2-scoop cones can you scoop? Bonus: If 24 of those cones are those flat-bottomed ones that stand up, how many pointy ones do you scoop?
The sky’s the limit: National Ice Cream Day is always celebrated the 3rd Sunday in July. What is the earliest date it can happen, and what’s the latest date?
Answers:
Wee ones: 4 flavorings.
Little kids: 2 scoops. Bonus: 20 minutes.
Big kids: 33 cones. Bonus: 9 pointy cones.
The sky’s the limit: July 15, and July 21. The earliest first Sunday possible is July 1, and the 3rd Sunday is 14 days later, making it July 15. The latest possible first Sunday is July 7, making the 3rd Sunday July 21.
