Halloween is time to carve pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns. But first you need to scoop out hundreds of those goopy seeds. You can tell which pumpkins have more seeds from the ridges on the outside: more ridges = more seeds. So when you’re picking a pumpkin to carve, do a little math up front and you can spare yourself a lot of goop.
Wee ones: Can you find any triangles in the picture?
Little kids: If you carve triangles for the 2 eyes and the nose, how many straight lines have you cut in total? Bonus: What if you make that nose into a hexagon instead?
Big kids: If your pumpkin has 11 ridges and your friend’s pumpkin has twice as many, how many does your friend’s pumpkin have? Bonus: If each ridge lines up with a row of 20 seeds, but every 9th ridge starting with the 9th lines up with 100 seeds, how many seeds does the ridgier pumpkin have?
Answers:
Wee ones: We spot triangle eyes and triangle noses!
Little kids: 9 lines or sides. Bonus: 12 lines: a hexagon has 3 more sides than a triangle.
Big kids: 22 ridges. Bonus: 600 seeds. Only 2 ridges have 100 seeds apiece. They give us 200 seeds. The remaining 20 ridges give us 20×20 seeds.
