Have you ever seen a hamster run inside a hamster wheel? These small, furry rodents will run for hours. Well, the guys at LiveNation let their pets try running on a spinning turntable instead. A turntable, or record player, is a flat circle that spins, while a needle drags though the grooves on the record (that black plastic disk you see) to play music. As we see in this video, our fuzzy friends run fast enough to keep up *most* of the time, but watch what happens. At least they’re working out to great music!
Wee ones: Sergio, Chunk, Harry, Lloyd and Herzog all get to spin on the turntable. How many furry animals is that?
Little kids: If Harry hangs on for 8 seconds before sliding off, while Lloyd hangs on for 6 seconds, who lasted longer? Bonus: By how many seconds did he last longer?
Big kids: How many legs do those 5 brave rodents have? Bonus: If you put a bunch of rodents on the turntable and they have 21 more legs than tails, how many spinning rodents do you have?
Answers:
Wee ones: 5 furry animals.
Little kids: Harry stayed on longer. Bonus: 2 seconds.
Big kids: 20 legs. Bonus: 7 rodents, since every rodent has 3 more legs than tail.
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.