Julie Bogart

Today we spent time playing with lentils in a box. Not unlike
sand, the kids (11, 9 and 7) were mesmerized. We scooped,
poured them from one container to another and counted them.
We figured out how many lentils are in a one pound bag: 6, 600.

That got us wondering how many lentils it would take to make a
straight line from Los Angeles CA to New York City NY. We
began measuring one inch, then multiplied it by twelve inches for
a foot. Then we figured out how many feet in a mile and THEN,
we figured out how many miles (using mapquest) between LA
and NYC (we used our rounding skills and rounded that number
to 2800).

Did you know that it would take 887, 040, 000 to make a straight
line from LA to NYC? When we guessed before we began, we
had these guesses: 87 billion, 50 billion, and 11 billion. We were
nowhere close. I would *never* have guessed that you could put
lentils end to end next to each other and get from LA to NYC
without going past 1 billion.

That made me suddenly acutely aware of just how big a billion
dollars is (imagine housing one billion dollar bills, for instance, if
less than a billion tiny lentils end to end will cross the USA). I
began to understand the nature of the huge deficit CA is facing
and the nation is spending on the war etc.

I never really got "one billion" until today. And we had fun. And
suddenly I enjoyed a moment of math! Oh, did I mention my kids
enjoyed it too?

Julie B

[email protected]

In a message dated 10/8/03 2:04:50 PM, julie@... writes:

<< Did you know that it would take 887, 040, 000 to make a straight

line from LA to NYC? >>

Did you allow for elevation? You'll need more lentils to get over the
mountains.

Sandra

Julie Bogart

--- In [email protected],
SandraDodd@a... wrote:
>
> In a message dated 10/8/03 2:04:50 PM, julie@b... writes:
>
> << Did you know that it would take 887, 040, 000 to make a
straight
>
> line from LA to NYC? >>
>
> Did you allow for elevation? You'll need more lentils to get over
the
> mountains.
>
> Sandra

We took our miles from mapquest which I assume takes
highway elevation into account. :) You may be right, though.

Julie B

[email protected]

In a message dated 10/8/03 4:35:35 PM, julie@... writes:

<< We took our miles from mapquest which I assume takes

highway elevation into account. :) >>

OH! Your lentils went as the car drives, not as the crow flies! <bwg>

Sandra

[email protected]

In a message dated 10/8/03 4:56:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
SandraDodd@... writes:

> Did you allow for elevation? You'll need more lentils to get over the
> mountains.
>
> Sandra
>

Maybe it's a "flying line", not a "ground line"..

Teresa


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Julie Bogart

--- In [email protected],
SandraDodd@a... wrote:
>
> In a message dated 10/8/03 4:35:35 PM, julie@b... writes:
>
> << We took our miles from mapquest which I assume takes
>
> highway elevation into account. :) >>
>
> OH! Your lentils went as the car drives, not as the crow flies!
<bwg>
>

Yes. And it's an estimate anyway because we rounded up from
2784 to 2800 miles. :) And LA to NYC isn't a straight line, AND,
LA isn't the furthest point west on the continental US nor is NYC
the furthest point east. But it was the best we could do.
Searching the Internet for the width of the continental US at its
widest point was beyond our search engine skills. <bwg>

Julie B

Annie

You peaked my interest with this and I discovered that West Quoddy Head
Station in Lubec, Maine is the Easternmost point in the continental US
and Cape Mendocino in CA is the westernmost point. (Nearest town is
Capetown, CA)

According to Yahoo Maps, it's 3671.7 miles driving. Still looking for
that elusive "as the crow flies" info...

Annie


Julie Bogart wrote:

> --- In [email protected],
> SandraDodd@a... wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 10/8/03 4:35:35 PM, julie@b... writes:
> >
> > << We took our miles from mapquest which I assume takes
> >
> > highway elevation into account. :) >>
> >
> > OH! Your lentils went as the car drives, not as the crow flies!
> <bwg>
> >
>
> Yes. And it's an estimate anyway because we rounded up from
> 2784 to 2800 miles. :) And LA to NYC isn't a straight line, AND,
> LA isn't the furthest point west on the continental US nor is NYC
> the furthest point east. But it was the best we could do.
> Searching the Internet for the width of the continental US at its
> widest point was beyond our search engine skills. <bwg>
>
> Julie B
>
>
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Julie Bogart

--- In [email protected], Annie
<annie@o...> wrote:
> You peaked my interest with this and I discovered that West
Quoddy Head
> Station in Lubec, Maine is the Easternmost point in the
continental US
> and Cape Mendocino in CA is the westernmost point.
(Nearest town is
> Capetown, CA)
>
> According to Yahoo Maps, it's 3671.7 miles driving. Still
looking for
> that elusive "as the crow flies" info...
>
> Annie
>

Thanks annie. I told my son about your results and he already
got the lentils out last night so we can re-calculate based on the
furthest points east and west. :) Will let you know what we find. :D

Julie B