We have lots of robots in our lives, from the ice maker in a freezer to vending machines that spit out candy. But robots are more fun when they look like people. That’s how Transformers started: take a chunky toy car or truck, turn out the sides to make arms and legs, and boom, you have a humanoid robot! So some folks in Turkey went a step further. They built a real Transformer out of a real car. This red BMW unfolds and stands up like a person. The question is, how many toy Transformers would it take to match this thing?
Wee ones: Count your arms and legs. How many “pieces” do you have in total?
Little kids: The car takes about 7 seconds to spread its doors and 12 seconds to stand up. Which step takes longer? Bonus: If the car is 15 feet long, but becomes 1 foot longer when it stands up, how tall is it while standing up?
Big kids: If it takes 1 minute 6 seconds to transform the car into a robot, and the same time to transform back to a car, with 5 seconds in between, how long does all of that take together? Bonus: If your Transformer weighs 1/2 pound and that BMW weighs 3,000 pounds, how many Transformers does it take to match the weight of the “real” Transformer? (Hint if needed: How much do 2 Transformers weigh? Then how many sets of those do you need?)
Answers:
Wee ones: 4 “pieces.”
Little kids: Standing up takes longer. Bonus: 16 feet long.
Big kids: 2 minutes 17 seconds. Bonus: 6,000 toy Transformers!
