Here at Bedtime Math, we love our pet guinea pigs. Guinea pigs are funny, furry, fluffy friends who munch through their veggies very fast. And they’re the stars of our newest Bedtime Math book, “How Many Guinea Pigs Can Fit on a Plane?” As you can see in our new video, guinea pigs are happiest with other guinea pigs, so they really are the perfect pets to squish together on an airplane. When you find out how huge the inside of a plane is, you see that you can fly a lot of these critters at once. Check out the video, then try the math below… then check out the book here!
Wee ones: Guinea pigs have 4 legs. Count your legs. Do you have as many legs as Snickers the guinea pig?
Little kids: Snickers and Cookie Dough, the video guinea pigs, don’t share well. If Cookie has 5 carrots and takes 2 more from Snickers, how many does she have now? Bonus: If Snickers then takes 3 back, how many carrots does Cookie have now?
Big kids: If you can fit 8 guinea pigs in a row across the plane and 9 of those rows of them going up, how many guinea pigs have you stacked? (Hint if needed: 8 is 2 x 2 x 2, so you can just double the 9, then double, then double again). Bonus: The guinea pigs are 8 inches long. How many guinea pigs need to line up end to end to make a round number of feet? (Reminder: A foot has 12 inches.)
The sky’s the limit: If you can stack the guinea pigs 10 across and 9 up, can you fit 1,000 8-inch-long guinea pigs in a passenger space 20 feet long? (Hint if needed: How many would fit in the first 2 feet?)
Wee ones: Snickers has more legs.
Little kids: 7 carrots. Bonus: 4 carrots.
Big kids: 72 guinea pigs. Bonus: 3 guinea pigs, which makes 24 inches or 2 feet. You need a multiple of 8 that’s also a multiple of 12, but since both numbers are already divisible by 4, you just need to multiply the 8 by 3.
The sky’s the limit: Yes! You’ll fit 2,700 guinea pigs, since you’ll fit 270 in each set of 2 feet.