Let’s hear it for Harry Burt, who in 1920 figured out how to coat ice cream in hardened dark chocolate, and to deliver that ice cream in trucks! Have you ever wondered how many bars and popsicles an ice cream truck can sell in 1 day? Well, at a park or beach a truck can unload 20-30 bars to one crowd. After 10 stops like that, a truck could sell 200 to 300 bars in a day. And we’re happy to stand in line for one.
Wee ones: Lots of ice cream bars look like rectangles. How many sides does a rectangle have? Is the floor of your room a rectangle?
Little kids: If a driver sells 4 ice cream sandwiches and 2 popsicles, how many ice cream treats is that? Bonus: If he sells an orange popsicle, then a lemon, then a cherry, then orange, lemon, cherry…what flavor is the 11th popsicle?
Big kids: If a truck sells an orange popsicle, then a lemon popsicle, then a cherry popsicle, then an orange popsicle to repeat the pattern, what flavor is the 25th popsicle? See if you can get it without counting up! Bonus: Which sale makes a bigger discount: 16% off a $3.60 cone, or 8% off a $6.40 sundae? Round decimals to the nearest hundredth to compare!
The sky’s the limit: If the driver buys each treat for $1, which way will make more money, selling 20 of them for $5 each or 30 of them for $4 each?
Answers:
Wee ones: 4 sides.
Little kids: 6 treats. Bonus: Lemon.
Big kids: Orange, since it’s the first treat in a new set of 3. Bonus: The 16% off $3.60 creates a discount of $0.576, which we round up to $0.58, while the 8% off creates a discount of $0.512, which we round down to $0.51.
The sky’s the limit: Selling 30 of them for $4. In the first way, selling them for $5 will make $4 extra on each, so 20 treats make $80. Selling for $4 will make only $3 on each, but 30 of those will make $90 total.
