How Many Guinea Pigs Can Fit on a Plane?: Answers to Your Most Clever Math Questions. By Laura Overdeck. Feiwel and Friends, Macmillan. Raincoast, 2017. $13.99 ages 8 and up

"Ants can't pick up much more than a crumb, a tiny leaf, or a piece of twig. But ants are tiny, so lifting those things is a big deal. Some ants can carry up to 50 or even 100 times their own weight! What would that look like for you? Take your weight in pounds and multiply it by 50.  A 40-pound kid could lift 40 x 50 = 2,000 pounds. That's the weight of a grown female giraffe."

IMAGINE THAT!

I am going to go on a run today and tomorrow, and post about books that deal with numbers and mathematics. This is the first of 6. So, here we go ...

Kids love to think about big things. There are 50 questions here from inquisitive children around the world. The author has placed those questions and her answers in five chapters: Animal Math, Nature Gone Wild, Math for Your Mouth, Your Life in Numbers, and Earth and Friends. Finally, in Chapter 6, she offers 7 Slick Tricks to Amaze Your Friends. It's all about math you can do in your head. Interested? I bet you are, and I know that your own children or your school students will be equally as keen to find out more.

The author believes that kids have an amazing capacity for understanding the world through numbers. Because they are endlessly curious and willing to ask their questions, parents can help them research to find answers.

 "How long does it take rain falling from up there to land on our umbrellas?"

By looking at the math that considers it falling from a cumulonimbus cloud, it might have started falling half an hour ago! I never would have thought of the question, never mind been able to come up with an answer.

"When will I be a billion seconds old?"

In the end, after all the math calculations, you will 'turn one billion seconds old when you've lived 31 YEARS, 8 MONTHS AND 15 DAYS'!

Who knew? Gives new meaning to what a really big number 1 billion is, doesn't it?

Check out this link to find out more, to sign up for daily email ideas, and to watch some giggly math videos.

http://bedtimemath.org