Let’s keep celebrating Math Awareness Month with another fun video! Today we see our friend Kevin take a job at the Car Wash of Doom. As you’d guess from the name, just about everything goes wrong at this car wash — and it would all go better if Kevin could do the math. Regular car washes do a pretty good job: there are more than 110,000 car washes in the US, and together they wash 8 million cars a day! Hopefully they do a better job than our friend here — watch to find out why!
Lace up: If you’re spraying a hose for 4 seconds, what numbers do you say to count those seconds? Count up to 4! Now try counting down from 4!
Jog: If Kevin’s power washer knocks off 2 front tires and 1 back tire, how many tires does he knock off?
Sprint: If 8 fish come out of the hose and all but 3 of them squirt into the car, how many fish land in the car?
Hurdle: Many car washes close during freezing weather. If your car wash runs from the start of March to the end of November, during how many months is it open?
High Jump: If America washes 8 million cars a day, how many days would it take to wash a car for every one of our 320 million people? (Hint if needed: How many days would it take to wash 32 million cars? and then how does the answer differ?)
Answers:
Lace up: Counting up: 1, 2, 3, 4! Counting down: 4, 3, 2, 1!
Jog: 3 tires.
Sprint: 5 fish.
Hurdle: 9 months.
High Jump: 40 days. It would take 4 days to wash 32 million cars, then you need 10 times as long for 10 times as many cars.
