We love it when our food talks to us. Best of all might be those square Dove chocolates, each of which has a little saying stamped inside its foil wrapper, like “Smiling is free” or “You’re invited to relax” (ha!). To make this fun, these snack companies have to think up a lot of sayings, which all have to be short enough to fit on the wrapper. In other words, it’s all about words, but it also becomes a big math problem.
Wee ones: If your Dove chocolate says “Love is yummy,” how many words is that?
Little kids: How many letters does “Love is yummy” have? Spell it out with a grown-up! Bonus: If the wrapper can hold 15 letters, how many more letters could squeeze in after “Love is yummy”?
Big kids: If the 60 chocolates in a bag use 10 sayings on equal numbers of chocolates, how many chocolates have each saying? Bonus: What if each saying shows up on only 5 chocolates in the bag? How many sayings did the Dove folks have to think up?
Answers:
Wee ones: 3 words.
Little kids: 11 letters — that’s 4 plus 2 plus 5. Bonus: 4 more letters.
Big kids: On 6 chocolates apiece. Bonus: 12 sayings.
