®®
The
Challenge:
This February, Mister Goodmath revisited his friends at Soquel Elementary in the heart of beautiful Santa Cruz County, California. The natural beauty of this part of the country is nothing less than inspirational. As in my 1997 trip, the giant Coast Redwood trees caught most of my attention. These gentle giants, as tall as 300 feet, extend inland only as far as California's maratime coastal climate. In this type of climate fog plays a major role in protecting these trees by keeping them warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Redwoods are even capable of generating their own fog by using huge amounts of transpiring moisture that condense at night to form fog.
This year, a side trip to Big Basin Redwoods State Park, provided an opportunity to hike in a Coast Redwood forest 1,000 plus years in age. Totaling branches, leaves, and roots, each tree added 1,780 tons of plant life per acre. The largest tree, "The Mother of the Forest", was 56 feet around at its base and so tall that its top was completely hidden by the fog.
Should you decide to accept this Challenge, calculate how many gallons of water 1,000 of these trees would release into the atmosphere during a four week period of time. Be sure to check out the hint before attempting this problem and remember that your solution is as important as your answer.
The Solution:
Should
you decide to ponder the problem and accept the challenge, communicate
your solution to Mister Goodmath at "rooneym@mistergoodmath.org".
Be sure when you e-mail Mister Goodmath that you include the following
information. What was your solution (how did you get your answer)? What
is your first and last name? What is your teacher's name.Great
solutions
will be featured on T.V. during WAVE morning announcements.
The Hint:
Click on the Redwood tree. You'll be taken to
some
vital information.
