Fermi Questions

Stage Concepts Focus Question Source

2 Length,
Money
You are stacking ten cent coins. How many are needed to make a stack as tall
as you? How much would it cost you to buy all of these ten cent coins?
0
2 Number, Time How many hours of homework will the students in this class do this year? 0
2 Length How many packets are needed to measure a single line of M&Ms to a distance
of 100m?
2
2 Length If our entire class lay in a line head-to-tail, how long would the line be? 0
2 Time How many hours of TV will the students in our class watch this year? 0
2 Volume &
Capacity
How many jelly beans fill a bucket? 2
2 Volume &
Capacity
How many golf balls will fit in a suitcase? 3
3 Chance,
Multiplication
& Division
What is the probability of winning a million dollars on Who Wants to ba a
Millionaire by guessing? Assume everyone guesses, including the audience and
the phone-a-friend.
3
3 Length How much dental floss does a prisoner need to escape over a wall? 3
3 Number, Time In 1963 Australia changed from pounds, shillings and pence to a decimal (base
10) currency. Similarly, we no longer use inches, feet and miles, but metres and
kilometres, and grams and kilograms have replaced ounces and pounds. How
can our measurement of time be similarly changed?
1
3 Time How old are you if you are a million seconds old? A million hours old? A million
days old?
2
3 Addition &
Subtraction,
Multiplication
& Division
If the cost of groceries was the same across the world as it is in Sydney, how
much would it cost to feed the world for a year?
1
3 Multiplication
& Division
How many eggs are consumed in an average week in the Australia? 3
3 Area How many blades of grass on a school oval? 2
3 Area How many hairs are there on a human head? 3
3 Area If all the people of the world were crowded together, how much area would we
cover?
3
3 Area,
Multiplication
& Division
How many bricks are there in (our school)? 3
3 Length Imagine the earth is at one end of the school oval and the moon is at the other
end. How far away is the sun?
2
3 Length What distance will a ball point pen write? 2
3 Length How many times did the wheel of the bus turn on the class excursion? 2
3 Length, Time How fast does human hair grow (in km/hr)? 3
3 Length, Time How fast do humans grow (in km/hr)? 3
3 Length, Time How fast does Santa travel on Christmas Eve? 3
3 Length, Time,
Speed
When the island of Krakatoa was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, the sound
waves could be detected worldwide. How long would it take for such a wave to
travel around the earth and come back to Krakatoa? (seconds)
3
3 Mass How much has the mass of the human population increased in the last year?
(kilograms).
3
3 Mass What is the mass of all of the world's fingernail clippings from today?
(kilograms)
3
3 Mass,
Multiplication
& Division
How much has the mass of the human population on the earth increased in the
last year? (kilograms)
3
3 Mass,
Multiplication
& Division
When I do something nice for my Mum, she often thanks me by saying I am
"worth my weight in gold". How much is this exactly? Is it much of a
compliment, or a clever adult insult?
1
3 Money, Time If your life earnings were doled out to you by the hour, how much is your time
worth per hour?
3
3 Speed How much time would be saved nationwide by increasing the speed limit from
55 to 65 km/h? How does this compare to the extra lives lost?
3
3 Time Mr D, being the slightly eccentric man that he is, cancelled his birthday one year
to celebrate a slightly different milestone. That year he held a party to
celebrate his 10 000th birthday (it had been 10000 days since the day he was
born). How many years and days old was he when this happened?
1
3 Time My teacher told me that there are 7 days in a week and 52 weeks in a year but
my diary says there are 365 days in a year. Since when is 7 x 52 = 365? What's
going on?
1
3 Time How many years would it take for McDonalds to sell a billion of their
hamburgers? (years)
3
3 Time How many hairdressers are there in (Sydney)? (a number) 3
3 Time If you were able to start counting aloud from the second you were born, how
old would you be when you reached 1 billion?
0
3 Volume &
Capacity
How much water does your household use each week? Can you answer this
without using a water bill?
2
3 Volume &
Capacity
How many 1 litre buckets of water are needed to empty Sydney Harbour? 3
3 Volume &
Capacity
What is the volume of human blood in the world? How does this compare to
the volume of ______ Sydney Harbour?
3
3 Volume &
Capacity
How many dump truck loads would it take to cart away Mt. Everest? 3
3 Volume &
Capacity
How many grains of sand are there in our school sand pit? 1
3 Whole
Number, Area
If all the people in the world moved to Victoria, how crowded would it be? 2
3 Area How many hairs are there on a dog? 3
1/2 Whole
Number,
How many cars use the freeway behind our school each day? (number of cars) 3
Addition
2/3 Time How many 'extra' years do you have to live to make up for the amount of time
spent/wasted in a gym, if you follow the recommended advice of exercising for
30 minutes a day?
1
2/3 Volume &
Capacity
How many balloons would be needed to completely fill your Math classroom? 0
2/3 Mass How many children are needed to have a mass the same as an elephant? 2
2/3 Number, Time How many times will your heart beat in your lifetime? 0
2/3 Whole
Number,
Mass, Volume
& Capacity
How many grains of rice are in a 10kg bag? 2
2/3 Whole
Number,
Money,
Volume &
Capacity
Could you fit $1,000,000 worth of $1 coins in your classroom? What about a
billion dollar in $1 coins?
2
2/3 Whole
Number, Time
How much money is spent in the school canteen each day? In a week? Over the
year?
2
2/3 Whole
Number, Time
How long would it take to count to a million? 2
2/3 Whole
Number,
Volume
How many cups of water are there in a bath tub? What about in an Olympic
pool?
2
2/3 Whole
Number,
Volume &
Capacity
How many people could you fit into the classroom? How many soccer balls? 2
2/3 Addition &
Subtraction
Spend exactly $1,000,000 using things for sale in the newspaper. 2
2/3 Addition &
Subtraction
How much paper is used at our school each week? 2
2/3 Money What is the average cost of an automobile including overhead (maintenance,
looking for parking, cleaning, etc)?
3
2/3 Money What is the average cost of a bicycle? 3
2/3 Multiplication
& Division
Would you rather have $1 million or 1c on the first day, doubling every day for
a month?
0
2/3 Multiplication
& Division
A local business is planning on paying to have an advertisement posted on one
of our school fences. Will more people see one posted by the railway line or the
freeway? How many people pass the boundaries of our school each day?
0
2/3 Whole
Number
How many individual frames are needed for a feature length motion picture? 3
2/3 Addition &
Subtraction
How many books are read by children in our school/class in one year? About
how many pages is that?
2
2/3 Area How many bricks are there in one wall of the classroom? The whole school? 2
2/3 Area, Mass How big a block of chocolate could you make using all the chocolate eaten by
the class in a year?
2
2/3 Length How far does the average Year ____ student walk during a school day? 0
2/3 Length How many swimming strokes to swim from (North Head to South Head in
Sydney)? (number of strokes )
3
2/3 Length How wide a creek can a man jump with a running start? (metres) 3
2/3 Length What is the best object for throwing if you want to reach the greatest distance?
(metres)
1
2/3 Length Would you rather have your height in 5 cent coins piled like a tower, or your
arm span in $2 coins placed edge to edge?
0
2/3 Length, Time How far could you walk in one year? 2
2/3 Length, Time What is a reasonable amount of time for the school to evacuate to the
assembly point?
0
2/3 Length,
Volume &
Capacity
If you had a stack of $2 coins as tall as Mt Kosciusko, what would it be worth?
Could you fit all the coins in your bedroom?
2
2/3 Length,
Volume &
Capacity
How many 4 litre cans of paint would be needed to paint a lane divider
between our school and your house? (number of cans)
3
2/3 Mass What is the total mass in kilograms of all the students in your school? 2
2/3 Mass What is the weight of garbage thrown away by each family every year? 2
2/3 Mass What is the total weight of all of the students in this school? 0
2/3 Mass What is the weight of solid garbage thrown away by Australian families each
year?
3
2/3 Mass Estimate how many kilograms of potatoes are eaten each year in Australia.
(kilograms)
2
2/3 Money,
Addition &
Subtraction,
Time
How long would our class have to save to buy a car? 2
2/3 Money, Time How much does it cost to feed a dog over its lifetime? 0
2/3 Money, Time Over your lifetime, how much will you earn for each hour of homework you do? 0
2/3 Number, Time How many pizzas are eaten by our class in one year? 2
2/3 Temperature How much warmer is a room when there are ten people in it than when it is
empty? (degrees C)
3
2/3 Time How many beats will your heart make in a lifetime? 2
2/3 Time, Length,
Speed
How long would it take to drive to the moon (if you could)? 2
2/3 Volume &
Capacity
How much Coke (or soft drink) will you drink in your lifetime? 0
2/3 Volume &
Capacity
How many litres of petrol are used in your home town in one week? (litres) 3
2/3 Volume &
Capacity
How many pieces of popcorn does it take to fill a room? 3
2/3 Whole
Number, Area
How many pages would be needed to show a million stars? ********** 2
2/3 2D & 3D Space Why are man-hole covers round? 0
2/3 Chance,
Multiplication
& Division
Realistically, what are your chances of winning 'Who wants to be a
Millionaire?'?
0
2/3 Whole
Number,
Length
If all the people in Australia joined hands and stretched themselves out in a
straight line, how long would it reach?
2
3 Multiplication
& Division
How many dozens of eggs are consumed in the Australia during the week that
contains Easter?
3
3 Mass What is the mass of all the automobiles scrapped in (Australia) this month?
(kilograms)
3

Source Code
0 Unknown
1 The Maths Compendium
2 Victorian Department of Education -
www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/maths
3 http://www.physics.uwo.ca/science_olympics/events/puzzles/fermi_questions.html