Not only is July National Ice Cream Month, it’s also National Hot Dog Month, and the 3rd Wednesday of the month is National Hot Dog Day! Americans eat 20 billion hot dogs every year, with 7 billion of those eaten just during the summer. The biggest hot dog ever was made in 2011 in Paraguay, in South America: it measured 669 feet long and weighed 264 pounds. The question is, how many bites did it take to eat that one?
Lace up: If you take 6 bites to eat your hot dog, what numbers would you say to count them off?
Jog: They say 9 out of 10 grown-ups squirt mustard on their hot dogs. How many of those 10 grown-ups don’t?
Sprint: If you eat a plain hot dog, then one with ketchup, then one with mustard, then start over with a plain dog, what kind of dog do you eat 11th?
Hurdle: If you eat 1 hot dog the first day of July, 4 the second day, and 9 on the third day…how many do you probably eat on the 4th day?
High Jump: If you and your friends each weigh 50 pounds, do 5 of you together weigh as much as the record 264-pound hot dog?
Pole Vault: If only 200 million Americans like hot dogs, and together they eat 20 billion hot dogs a year, how many hot dogs per person is that? (Hint if needed: What if each person ate 10 hot dogs?)
Answers:
Lace up: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Jog: 1 grown-up.
Sprint: Ketchup, since it’s 2 hot dogs after the 9th, which gets mustard.
Hurdle: 16 hot dogs – ugh!
High Jump: No – the 5 of you weigh only 250 pounds.
Pole Vault: 100 hot dogs per person. 10 per person would bring you to 2 billion dogs, so you need 10 times as many as that.
