The cool people at the Houston Auto Show asked me to do some coverage of the expo for them. It was a fun idea to do some car-math stuff, so I accepted.
When I cover an event like this, I always go in with a Dan Myers mindset: “What are the questions that come to mind?”
Instead of just asking the standard math questions, though, I’ve decided to get a little crazy. I’ve created some fun word problems based on the things I saw and did.
Note that not all of these have standard answers. Be creative. And make sure you share your answers in the comments!
Scale Model Scissors
I was there for the opening gala and watched the ribbon cutting. I found the scissors especially interesting:
Q: The scissors are a 1/18 working model of regular scissors. The man holding the scissors is 6′ 2″. If everything in this picture was scaled so the scissors were the size of actual scissors, how tall would he actually be?
Mirrors & Distance
The energetic video personality, Zane Aveton, caught me snuggling with the new Alfa Romeo 4C Spider in this photo:
Q: Zane is sitting in the driver’s seat of the Alfa Romeo, 3 feet from the mirror. I’m 8 feet from the mirror taking a photo of the wheel, how far is my image away from Zane?
a. 11feet
b. 8 feet
c. 3 feet
d. 16 feet
e. None of these
Flower Wheels & Graphing
While Zane was taking my photo, I was taking this one of the new Alfa Romeo Giulia wheel:
Q: What is the equation that, when graphed, results in the “flower” pattern on the wheel?
The fun and talented Dan Bach responded to this one on twitter:
.@MathFour having trouble with the wide leaves. Here’s r=(cos(5@))^(1/5) where @ is theta. pic.twitter.com/VlYb30REDb
— dan bach (@dansmath) January 27, 2016
Saving Babies
GMC is cleverly using logic in their new rear seat alert feature on the 2017 Acadia.
Here’s when the alert goes off:
- Back door closes
- Front door closes
- Car is driven
- Front door opens
- Back door does NOT open
Q: Write out a logical construction, flowchart, or computer program, to represent the logic process in this GMC feature.
Going Full Tilt
The ride in this Ram Truck looked like so much fun!
Q: What is the angle of the hill in this video? What information would you need to know to figure out the maximum angle the Ram Truck can drive before tipping over?
Bigger is Better
Toyota had this giant cube displayed:
Q: The Toyota RAV4 has 73.4 cubic feet of cargo space. You have a pair of stilts that are 9 feet long and have a volume of 2 square feet. What information do you need to know to find out if your stilts will fit in the RAV4?
See Math at an Auto Show Near You!
The next time you see a billboard for the Auto Show in your neighborhood, consider taking your kids and seeing all the math it offers.
You don’t have to have any right answers (like these). Or even any right questions. But just pondering stuff like this helps you and your kids!
P.S. They paid me to cover the show, but (obviously) all math problems are written by me. 😀
You might also like:
- The Math Behind Carpooling Toddlers
- How to Teach Right Angles when Crossing the Street
- Mathematicians are People Too (Or How I Messed up Numbering Freeways)
- Rush Hour Traffic Jam Game
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I LOVE this post! Thank you for sharing!
Another thought is to do it 3 Act Math style, and either take pictures which “begs the question”.