Facts and Figures about Times Square's New Year's Eve Celebration.

 

The ball they drop from the top of a 77 foot pole situated in the Times Square area of New York City has some fascinating facts associated with it that provide some great math questions.  There is the first possibility.  The ball travels 77 feet in just 60 seconds so we have a question on its rate of travel.

Another interesting fact is the original ball in 1907 had a diameter of just 5 feet but by the time of the last ball, it had grown to having a diameter of 12 feet.  That is enough information to calculate the volume of both and determine the percent increase in volume since the first one.  

Some other interesting facts associated with the ball is that the original ball in 1907 weighed 700 pounds but in the 1920's it was replaced by a 400 pound iron ball.  Then in 1955, it was replaced by a 150 pound aluminum ball which was replaced about 10 years ago by a ball weighing 11,875 pounds.  This information opens up to calculating change in precent between the balls.  There was a trend of getting lighter but then with the last one, it became so much heavier.

One reason the current ball is so heavy is due to the 2,688 Waterford crystals imported from Ireland and to the 32,385 LED lights covering the ball.  Since this has a 12 foot diameter, it is possible to calculate the surface area of the sphere and then use that to calculate the density of the crystals and the lights.  In addition, the 32,385 lights can create 16 million color combinations.  That is interesting that so few lights can produce so many combinations.

Once the ball has fallen, the city releases 3,000 pounds of of confetti.  The 3000 pounds is made up of around 30,000,000 pieces of colored paper.  Add into that the fact over a million people attend the event in person and everyone produces something like 48 tons of garbage that takes around 7 hours to clean up using a total of 180 people.  These facts provide students a chance to calculate how much trash each person produced.

If you don't feel like using any of this information to create your own activities, there are some out there ready to go.  Yummy math has a couple that are quite interesting.  One activity that deals specifically with ball itself.  The ball is actually a geodesic sphere that is fixed to a frame.  The activity goes into more detail about the arrangement Waterford crystals and LED lights on the dome.  

The other activity looks at the evolution of the ball itself from the original 5 foot diameter wood/iron one to the current one that is more of a wonder/notice activity.  It wouldn't be hard to include a second page with questions that have students calculate percent increases or decreases from ball to ball.  If you feel like looking at the amount of work as defined by physics, check out this page which shows the math involved in finding the amount of total work done by the ball. 

Now if you like, you can have students take the information from this article published in 2019 and have them create an infographic with all the information or assign specific areas for students to investigate in more detail before creating the infographic using that information.  

Due to the virus, this year's celebration will only happen virtually so you can still see it happen from the comfort of your own home.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

The Cost of Being "Santa Claus".

Do you remember as a child, going to the local mall where you saw Santa Claus?  He was there everyday between Thanksgiving and Christmas and you ended up standing in line just so you could tell him exactly what you wanted for Christmas this year?

This is one of those seasonal jobs you might want to talk about in class next year.  This job has certain requirements and costs.  For instance, to be successful, a person needs to have a certain look.  

The look includes a proper red suit which can run between $800 and $1200 for a high quality one.  It is possible to pay less but it won't look as good and Santa wants to look their best.  It is important to have at least two suits because people, including Santa, spill things on themselves and little ones can have sticky fingers.  Then they have to purchase appropriate boots, a thick belt with a proper belt buckle which runs between $250 and $400.  Don't forget that one has to properly clean the suit on a regular basis so that costs between $50 and $150 each time.

To stand out as Santa, it is important to customize the suit by adding buttons that run between $6 and $75 each, or keys, or pouches.  Furthermore, Santa has to have the proper colored hair and beard to go with the outfit.  A realistic beard and wig combination will run a person between $1500 and $2000, depending on the type.  By type, I mean is it a short beard, medium, or long one and you would want a custom one so it looks real.  In addition, you'll need to consider spending another $200 or so per year to have the wig/beard sets cleaned and maintained for the next year.

If someone uses their own beard and hair, they have to make sure it is of the same silvery white one sees in pictures and that can run between $100 to $300 per session.  If a person wants to be Santa, it is also recommended they carry Santa liability insurance policy just in case.  The suggested amount is in the 2 to 4 million dollar range for proper protection.  

Then if you want to stand out, you will lay out between $250 and $550 to attend "Santa" School to learn the finer points of being Santa.  These schools provide the necessary skills to make it as a professional Santa who will entertain everyone and learn more about doing a proper job.  Enrolling in one of these schools will improve a person's chances of making more money doing the job.  Since much of the world is digital, there is even one school that provides online classes for potential Santas.  

This is the cost of becoming Santa and yearly outlays to continue being Santa.  So what can a person earn as Santa each year?  Well, that depends on several factors but according to two different sources most professional Santas earn between $5000 and $8000 per year with some earning between $15,000 to $20,000 annually.  If you work at a mall or are hired by a professional photo company to pose with children, the median pay rate is said to be $41 per hour.  The better the Santa, the more money a person can earn.  One article said if a person looks and behaves like a "real" Santa, has had proper training, and has the right attitude, they can earn up to $500 per hour.  Unfortunately, the season is generally limited to November and December so it is considered a seasonal job.  

Maybe next December, you can share this with students as one of those jobs you don't think about.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Warm-up

If most people manage to adhere to their New Year's Resolutions to January 12th?  What percent of the year were they successful?

Warm-up

Last year after Christmas season sales ran around $1.14 trillion.  This year, it is predicted to run around $1.52 trillion.  Find the percent increase.

 

Merry Christmas

The True Cost Of the 12 Days Of Christmas

 

Every year, one of the songs you hear during the Christmas season is the 12 days of Christmas with it's golden rings, drummers drumming, and all the other pieces.  Every year, someone figures out the cost of what these gifts might set someone back.  Every year since 1984, PNC Financial group has published the current cost of obtaining these gifts and compares it with the previous year.

Due to the pandemic, PNC was unable to calculate the cost of nine ladies dancing, ten lords a leaping, eleven pipers piping, and twelve drummers drumming.  PNC uses prices from performances to calculate these items but with performances being cancelled, they are unable to get the current cost.k. Consequently, the cost for this dropped by about 38% since last year.

The list breaks down the cost of each item and explains whether it went up, stayed the same, or went down and why.  For instance, it tells us that it will cost $58.00 to hire the maids-a-milking since the federal minimum wage has not changed since last year but the cost for two turtle doves is running $450 this year, an increase of about 50% since last year.  

In addition, it lists the cost of the 12 days since 1984 when they first started doing it.  This means students can take the data with 1984 being the base year or 0 and they can create a line of best fit via linear or quadratic regression and come up with the equation.  A practical application of data in a fun manner.  Furthermore, at the bottom of the page, they have a graph showing the total cost of the gifts over the years but they also allow you to look at the changing cost of each individual item.

This is wonderful information because students have to read and interpret data.  The information also allows students to calculate the percent change from year to year for individual items, find the best fit equation using regression and a few allow students to use piecewise functions to mathematically explain the line.

Another activity this particular graph allows is for students to take a specific year and use the data to break down what percent of the whole cost each item represents both now and historically.  The information could be used to create bar graphs for each year to show how the individual items have changed or remained constant.  IF you look at the historical cost of the eight maids a milking, it is based on the Federal minimum wage and thus remains fairly constant.  The graph itself looks like steps, so students can see there are situations where step graphs appear in real life. 

This one page offers students a chance to practice mathematical modeling, graph interpretation, data use and interpretation that are all real life.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

The Post Office, Christmas, Wrapping Gifts, and Art..

 

It is the time of the year again, when we have to meet deadlines so Christmas gifts will make it to all the relatives in time. The village I live in, finally got the a bunch of mail after almost 10 days of no mail deliveries from Anchorage.  The post office was actually open Saturday due to the huge amount of mail arriving and more came in on Sunday.

According to a release, in 2019, the United States Post office delivered over 28 million packages each day between December 16 to the 21st.  In addition, the number drops to about 20 million packages per day to the end of the year.  Furthermore, it is predicted the post office will deliver over 800 million packages between Thanksgiving and New Years day.  

This year, everything is so much different due to the Coronavirus.  Since so many people are under lockdown and cannot travel, the number of orders made to online shops has increased significantly so the number of packages being shipped is threatening to overwhelm the post office and other shippers. It is estimated that e-commerce sales will reach close to $189 billion for November and December.  This is a 33 percent increase over last year.  The above information can be used by students to figure out how much the e-commerce sales were last year. 

Now for looking at holiday activities one can do in the classroom to celebrate the season.  This site has a wonderful breakdown of the number of toys that must be delivered to children over the 24 hour Christmas Day.  It was done by an Engineer back in 1990 but it would be easy to have students update some of the information to see how things have changed since it was originally written. Once students have updated the information, they can calculate the percent increase or decrease over the years.  The article offers the opportunity to carry out an analysis of the original data.

Christmas time is perfect for an exploration of surface area due to having to wrap presents.  Yummy Math has a great activity that has students comparing wrapping presents using the traditional method where the paper is set to go with the present or wrapping the gift on the diagonal to see which one uses less paper.  The lesson uses both surface area and the Pythagorean theorem during the exploration.

Yummy Math has another activity involves students determining if they have enough paper to wrap a certain present.  The specific wrapping paper chosen is the tissue paper which based on personal experience requires at least two to three sheets to properly cover a present and usually comes in smaller sized sheets than wrapping paper on a roll.  

Yummy Math also has a variation of the wrapping activity where students are shown a picture of a man who is purchasing two large gifts.  Students are asked to estimate how much paper will be needed to wrap these gifts and if one roll of paper is enough. Students are given the length and width of the roll of paper and they have to calculate area, estimate the measurements of the gifts, and are required to make predictions. 

This is also the perfect time of year to have students practice coordinate graphing since there are a lot of free coordinate drawing activities.  At this site, you can get one that allows students to create a picture of Santa Claus.  Math-aids has at least 6 different graphs to celebrate the season with trees or a gift or other ones.  Prefer something cute, check out the well wrapped Penguin for a winter celebration. On Wednesday, I'll be checking out the cost for someone to share the 12 days of Christmas for a love.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.