Wlme8 Full

Introduction and Acknowledgments
The eighth annual Worlds Largest Math Event (WLME 8) is slated for April 26, 2002, with the theme Entertaining Mathematics. WLME 8 continues the spirit of celebrating mathematics as an important part of life itself, inviting teachers and students in grades K16 from around the globe to participate. This event features mathematical investigations and problems related to the entertainment industry. The 12 activities are divided into four sections:
This year, the WLME activities are located exclusively on the NCTMs Web site. You can download the PDF version of WLME 8 in its entirety or by individual activity. Share these activities with other teachers and interested community members. The teachers notes and solutions follow each activity, and a bibliography provides additional resources. You can help spread the visibility of WLME 8 by promoting it through your local media. This is the first time that WLME has been distributed by electronic means alone. Therefore, the WLME Committee needs your feedback about the activities themselves and this form of presenting them. Please take time to complete the online survey. In the following set of activities, which range from polling friends about their music preferences to constructing a scale model of the Globe Theater, where many of Shakespeares plays were staged, students will be able to explore mathematics related to the entertainment industry. Choose one or two activities that will interest your students and explore those activities on April 26, 2002. (Because of scheduling difficulties, some teachers cannot participate on the day of the event. Please use these activities whenever it is convenient.) Embellish them with your own knowledge about the theme. Click on the Promote WLME 8 link to learn how to extend WLME 8 beyond your classroom. Almost every community can claim its own source of entertainment, such as a radio or television station and local newspaper. Others may have a historical movie or stage performance theater. WLME 8 provides an excellent opportunity for people in the local entertainment media to get involved in your school and promote your mathematics program! The NCTMs committee members who developed the WLME 8 materials were Daniel Brahier, Joseph Georgeson, Cathie Lewis, David Masunaga, and Mary Kay Varley. Special thanks are extended to Megan Hoehn for her research on the theme, to Danny Breidenbach and David Thronson for their many helpful suggestions, and to the classroom teachers who field-tested the activities and provided valuable feedback. Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002
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Copyright 2002 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics All Rights Reserved. www.nctm.org
Activity #1
Are You My Type?

Each year, millions of people purchase compact discs (CDs), cassettes, and music videos that represent a variety of music genres. The purpose of this activity is to have students explore the popularity of several styles of music. (a) Survey students in your class about their musical preferences. What is their favorite type of music? What is their least favorite? Which artists are the most popular? Graph the results of the surveys and compare them with those of other classes or other grades. Post the results in the school. (b) Collect comparable information from parents, teachers, or other adults. How do these results differ from the students surveys?
Teachers Notes: Are You My Type?

(a) The Recording Industry Association of Americas 2000 U.S. Consumer Trends showed how much of the total revenue was generated from each major musical genre: rock24.8%, rap/ hip hop 12.9%, pop 11%, country10.7%, rhythm and blues/ urban9.7%, religious4.8%, and jazz2.9%. Were the musical tastes of the students or their parents closer to this national set of results? (b) Students might be interested to know how musical tastes in the United States have changed between 1990 and 2000. For example, in 1990, 36.1% of the revenues were from rock music, but that number dropped to a low of 24.8% in 2000. Country music accounted for only 9.6% of the sales in 1990 but peaked at 18.7% in 1993, falling to just 10.7% by 2000. Classical music accounted for 3.7% of sales in 1992 and 1994 but dropped to 2.7% in 2000. Ask older students to consider what happens when the percent of the market share for a particular music genre doubles. Do the actual revenue dollars necessarily increase?
Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002

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Activity #2
Name That Medium

In the 1970s, almost all music was sold on vinyl records. Today, very few children even know what a record is, since vinyl accounts for less than 0.5% of all music sales. The following table lists the percent of sales from cassettes and CDs from 1990 through 2000. The table also includes the total income of the U.S. sound recording industry in each of those years.
Percent of CD & Cassette Sales from 1990 2000

Year
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Cassettes
54.7% 49.8% 43.6% 38.0% 32.1% 25.1% 19.3% 18.2% 14.8% 8.0% 4.9%
CDs
31.1% 38.9% 46.5% 51.1% 58.4% 65.0% 68.4% 70.2% 74.8% 83.2% 89.3%
Total Sales
$7,541,100,000 $7,834,200,000 $9,024,000,000 $10,046,600,000 $12,068,000,000 $12,320,300,000 $12,533,800,000 $12,236,800,000 $13,723,500,000 $14,584,500,000 $14,323,000,000
(a) Ask students what trends they notice in the table, then have them draw a double line graph to compare the percent of cassette sales with the percent of CD sales over the elevenyear period. What kinds of predictions can they make about the future of the industry based on this graph? What other factors are not included in this graph that need to be considered when predicting future sales?
(b) Have older students find equations for lines of best fit for CD sales and for cassette sales. What do the slope and y-intercept of each equation represent? What are the coordinates of the point of intersection of the two graphs? What does the intersection point show? (c) Have students explore the areas of music sales that are not shown in the table (including vinyl records, singles, and music videos). They can create an extra column in the table that represents percent of sales other than cassettes or CDs, compare the market shares of each group, and represent their findings in a circle graph. (d) Have students calculate the actual dollar amounts spent on cassettes and CDs over this period using calculators or spreadsheets. What trends do they notice about the Total Sales line over time?
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Activity #2
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Teachers Notes: Name That Medium

(a) Sales of CDs have clearly overtaken the sales of cassettes over the past decade. Internet downloads, such as MP3 usage, are not included in this chart. The disparity in cost between CDs and cassettes may influence market share percents, as well. (b) The equation for the linear-regression model for cassettes is approximated by y = 5.05x + 53.3, whereas the best fit for CD sales is approximated by y = 5.5x + 34.2 (x represents the year; 1990 is represented by 0, and so on). The yintercept tells roughly what percent of sales came from that source in the first year; the slope represents the change in percent of sales per year. While cassette sales were declining by an average of 5.05% per year, CD sales revenues increased an average of 5.5% per year. The intersection point of these two lines is approximately located at the coordinates (1.8, 44.2), which implies that late in 1991, the revenue generated from CD and cassette sales were equaleach accounting for about 44% of the market. Looking at the graphs of the lines of best fit, students can see that after that point, CDs began to surpass cassettes in sales. (c) About 10% of all music sales have consistently come from a source other than CDs and cassettes. (d) Although the total sales have almost doubled since 1990, increases have not occurred every year. Revenues from sales of music declined, for example, between 1996 and 1997 and between 1999 and 2000.

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Activity #3
You Better Shop Around

The demographics on the sales of musicCDs, cassettes, records, videos, and so onchanged dramatically in the 1990s. The table at the right shows the percent of items purchased in a music store versus other stores. The rest of the sales can be accounted for by tape and record clubs, Internet sales, catalogs, and telemarketing. (a) Give students the table and ask them to describe the trends that they observe. (b) Younger students may create bar graphs of the data. To test their observations, older students can use graphing calculators or other means to graph the data to confirm their initial observations and discover other trends.
Percent of Sales in Music Stores Versus Other Stores

Year
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Music Stores
69.8% 62.1% 60.0% 56.2% 53.3% 52.0% 49.9% 51.8% 50.8% 44.5% 42.4%
Other Stores
18.5% 23.4% 24.9% 26.1% 26.7% 28.2% 31.5% 31.9% 34.4% 38.3% 40.8%
(c) After finding equations for lines (or curves) of best fit, students can predict approximately when less than 25% of music sales will occur in a traditional music store or when other stores will account for more than 50% of all music sales. (d) What can students infer from these data about the future of the recording industry? Students should find different ways to report their findings and observations. They can write and present their inferences as a lead story on a prime-time-news hour, acting as the news anchor and using graphs to illustrate their points. They can also write a newspaper article and illustrate it with graphs that are similar to ones used in major newspapers. Some students may want to make posters to illustrate where they predict most music sales will occur in 2010.
Teachers Notes: You Better Shop Around

A. The trend for sales in traditional music stores is declining, whereas the trend for music sales in department stores and electronics stores is increasing. According to additional data from the Recording Industry Association of America, the Internet began to be a source of CD sales in 1997, accounting for 0.3% of the sales. But by 1998, Internet sales accounted for 1.1%; in 2000, this figure had risen to 3.2%. (b) The trend for sales in music stores appears to be roughly linear, although an exponential decay model may also be used. A graphing calculator shows the least-squares linear-regression function, y = ax + b, to be y = 2.25x + 65, where x is the year (1990 is represented by 0, 1991 by 1, and so forth). Using this function, an average of about a 2.25% decrease is seen each year on the previous years sales, and it would be about the year 2008 when music stores would account for only 25% of music sales. Of course, with the increase in Internet sales, it could be sooner than that. For the other stores data, the least-squares linearregression equation is about y = 1.96x + 19.7, so sales in other stores are increasing by slightly less than 2% per year. At this rate, department and electronics stores will account for over 50% of the total music sales by about the year 2005. Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002
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Activity #4
Gross Exaggerations?
The popularity of a movie is determined by the gross income generated by ticket sales. Debates about what constitutes gross income are based on various issues, one of which is inflation. For instance, since its release in 1939, Gone with the Wind has grossed $200 million in 1939 dollars. However, its adjusted revenue is $885 million. In comparison, the gross income for Titanic is $601 million. (a) Students can research the Internet or print materials to find the five top grossing films. (b) Introduce the concept of large numbers to younger students by reading the book How Much Is a Million? by David Schwartz or by obtaining a Reading Rainbow videotape version. Engage students in a discussion of large numbers using the large revenues generated by movies as examples. (c) Ask students to find out the price of an item that they would like to buy. How many of those items could be purchased with $601 million? (d) A $1 bill is approximately 6 inches (15 cm) long. How long would a string of $601 million onedollar bills be? Compare it with a distance benchmark, such as the distance from New York, New York, to Los Angeles, California (about 2800 mi. or 4500 km). (e) Students can also measure the length, width, and thickness of a dollar bill to determine how much space (volume) 601 million $1 bills would occupy. (f) How many different strategies can students devise to solve this problem: If a studio earns on average $10 a second (worldwide) screening a film, how long would it take the studio to earn $601 million?
Teachers Notes: Gross Exaggerations?

(c) Answers will vary. For example, this amount will purchase about 30,050 cars costing $20,000 each. (d) A string of $1 bills would be nearly 57,000 miles (92,000 km) long. This distance is greater than 10 roundtrips from New York to Los Angeles or more than two trips around the circumference of the earth. (e) If the money is stored in a vault with a floor that measures 12 ft. 12 ft. (3.7 m 3.7 m), about 52 bills (widthwise) and 24 bills (lengthwise) can tile the floor in 481,571 layers. Note: Use the fact that one hundred $1 bills are about 0.5 inch (1.3 cm) thick, or let students use a micrometer to measure the thickness of one or more bills to compute the height of the stacks. Such a vault would have to be 200 feet (61 m) high to accommodate all the money. (f) Working continuously, it would take 696 days, or about 1 year and 11 months.

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Activity #5
Counting with Oscar

Read the list of Clues, then match the Trivia Facts about the Academy Awards and the statue of Oscar with these numbers: 8, 10, 12, 20, 24, 30, 64, 2365, and 5700.
Clues
The sum of Oscars weight and the greatest number of acting nominations equals the number of hours it takes to produce an Oscar trophy. The number of times that the most frequently nominated person (in all categories) has been nominated for an Oscar is a perfect square. The number of times that a French film has been nominated is three times the age of the youngest person to receive a nomination. An average of slightly more than 30 Oscars has been awarded each year since 1927 The weight of an Oscar is 1/3 the number of possible award categories. The number of award categories is 6 less than the number of times a French film has been nominated.
Trivia Facts
1. The 2. The 3. The 4. The 5. The 6. The 7. The 8. The 9. The number of award categories greatest total number of nominations in all categories that a single person has received number of voting members in the Academy age of the youngest person ever nominated for an Oscar number of French films nominated for best Foreign Language Film hours needed to produce one Oscar trophy greatest number of acting nominations received by one person number of Academy Awards given since 1927 approximate weight of an Oscar trophy in pounds
Teachers Notes: Counting with Oscar

8: The Oscar trophy weighs a little over 8 pounds (4 kg) and stands 13.5 inches (34 cm) tall. 10: Tatum ONeal was ten years old when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Paper Moon. 12: Katharine Hepburn and Meryl Streep, with 12 nominations each, share the record for greatest number of acting nominations. 20: Twenty hours are required to make one Oscar trophy. 24: Twenty-three of the possible 24 categories were awarded in 2001. 64: Walt Disney was nominated for an Oscar 64 times, which is the record. This record still stands. 2365: Since 1927, a total of 2365 Oscars have been awarded. 5700: Voting members in the Academy number 5700. Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002
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Activity #6
Playing Around
The Globe Theater was opened in 1599 and was home to many plays written by William Shakespeare. Since the original Globe no longer exists, historical records of its measurements disagree slightly. Students of all ages can explore the geometry of the theaters unique structure. (a) When viewed from above, the basic shape of the Globe Theater is a regular icosagon (a 20-sided polygon). Have students investigate the angles of a regular icosagon. Then students can draw or construct this polygon using a variety of materials, such as Popsicle sticks. Older students can use a compass and straightedge. (b) Students can use Web sites to find information about the theaters dimensions and build scale models. (See the Shakespeare Globe Centre site at www.sgc.umd.edu/model.htm.) Primary-aged students can use constructed models made by older students to investigate geometric shapes. (c) The Globe Theater seated several hundred people in sheltered levels surrounding an approximately circular inner region. About 700 additional people could watch the plays in the field, which is located around and in front of the stage. This inner region was 70 feet in diameter, and the stage that jutted into this field was 49.5 ft. 25 ft. If the region were filled to capacity, about how many square feet of space would each person occupy in the field? Have the class make contiguous squares of this size on the floor with masking tape so that students can get a sense of how closely the audience would have needed to crowd together in the field for a performance.
Teachers Notes: Playing Around

(a) Each exterior angle is 18 degrees; each interior angle is 162 degrees. Students should notice that there are many different kinds of icosagons, but the regular icosagon has some unique properties.
25'
(c) The area of this inner region can be modeled using a circle. See the diagram at the right. The approximate audience region is the area of the inner circle minus the area of the rectangular stage (about 2611 square feet). Given a full capacity of 700 people, each person would occupy about 3.7 square feet, or a square region of about 2 feet on a side ( 3.7 1.9 ) . Older students could use an icosagonal region instead of the circular model to obtain closer estimates. Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002
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49.5' 70'
Activity #7
Seeing Green
Dr. Seusss Green Eggs and Ham has delighted children and adults since its publication in 1960. (a) Discuss the rhyming pattern in the story. Dr. Seuss adds two situations each time that green eggs and ham are discussed. Have the class make a rhyming pattern in which the situation increases by one word, then two words, then three words, and so on. Several recipes exist for foods from Dr. Seusss books. Here are the ingredients from a recipe for Green Eggs and Ham Deluxe:
(b)
Green Eggs and Ham Deluxe

Ingredients: 2-4 ounces of ham 8 eggs 2 tablespoons milk 1/4 cup chopped chives 1/8 cup chopped fresh parsley 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
This recipe makes enough eggs and ham for four people. Students could convert the recipe to make a single serving or serve 2, 6, 8, 10, or 12 people. They could also determine the amount of ingredients needed to feed everyone in the class or school by using this recipe. In some schools a significant number of students may not be able to eat ham. Turkey or veggie sausage make good substitutes.
Teachers Notes: Seeing Green

Children can use a variety of strategies to halve and double or multiply the fractions in this activity. Older students may want to discuss whether seasonings, such as salt and pepper, should be increased or decreased in the same proportions as the other ingredients and whether the oven temperature or pan size is similarly affected by increasing or decreasing the recipe. Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002
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Activity #8
Moving Right Along

One form of print media that has entertained children for decades is the comic book. One famous comic-book superhero is Superman. It is said that Superman is faster than a speeding bullet, but have your students or you ever wondered just how fast that comparison really is? According to the comic-book series, Superman can travel anywhere from 600 feet (180 m) per second to as much as 5000 feet (1500 m) per second. This activity will allow students to investigate the speed of several moving objects. (a) Children can compare Supermans speed with speeds that are familiar. Children should choose a favorite form of locomotion, such as running or riding a bicycle, skateboard, or scooter. Make a course of some given distance. Have each student run or ride the course (with appropriate safety equipment). Clock and record their speeds. Have students convert their speeds to feet (meters) per second, comparing them with the actual speed of Superman. (b) Have students discuss estimated speeds in the table below, then convert the speeds in the table to feet or meters per second and compare these numbers with Supermans range of speeds, from 600 to 5000 feet (180 to 1500 m) per second. Select a unit for comparison. For instance, students might design a two-inch paper lightning bolt that could represent the distance a baseball travels in 1 second, or 150 feet (45 m). Tape the paper lightning bolts in a line on the floor to illustrate the distances that each of the objects can travel in 1 second. Students can decide for which object this model would not be a good choice.
Object
A fast baseball pitch A puck on a hockey slap shot Top speeds for a tennis serve Top speeds for NASCAR race cars Boeing 757 jet Space Shuttle Lightning
Approximate Speed
100 miles (160 km) per hour 100 miles (160 km) per hour 130 miles (210 km) per hour 180 miles (290 km) per hour 540 miles (870 km) per hour 17,500 miles (28,000 km) per hour 334,800,000 miles (540,000,000 km) per hour
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Activity #8
Teachers Notes: Moving Right Along

(a) A person running a 4-minute mile is traveling at 22 feet (7 m) per second. A person riding a bicycle at 30 miles (48 km) per hour is traveling at 44 feet (13 m) per second, a very small fraction of Supermans speed. However, Superman may be faster than a race car, but he is no match for the speeds of the Space Shuttle or a flash of lightning! (b) In feet (meters) per second, the objects in the table below at top speed are traveling at these rates.
Object
Baseball/hockey puck Tennis serve Race car Boeing 757 jet Space Shuttle Lightning
Speed
150 feet (45 m) per second 190 feet (58 m) per second 260 feet (80 m) per second 790 feet (240 m) per second
(a 757 could fly by Superman when traveling at his slowest pace)
25,700 feet (7800 m) per second 500,000,000 feet (150,000,000 m) per second
Although the speed of a baseball can be displayed as the length of one paper lightning bolt, the speed of lightning itself would require more than 3,000,000 paper bolts. If each bolt is 2 inches (5 cm) in length, the model would have to be almost 95 miles (150 km) long!

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Activity #9
A Tall Order
Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone is the first book in the series by J. K. Rowling. Harry meets his eventual good friend, Hagrid, who is a wizard at Harrys school. When Harry first encounters Hagrid, he is described as follows: He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. (p. 14)
(a) Use this description to decide on Hagrids dimensions and create a life-sized drawing of Hagrid. Estimate how much food Hagrid might need to eat each day and whether he could fit through a school doorway if he decided to visit the class. (b) Primary-level children can first discuss how tall they think Big Bird is and compare his height with familiar objects, such as the door to the classroom, the height of the flagpole, or their own height. Then they can draw a picture of Big Bird standing next to themselves. Follow this activity with a class construction project of a life-sized drawing of Big Bird, who stands 8 feet 2 inches (2.5 m) tall. They can then compare this drawing with their own heights and with their estimates of his height.
Teachers Notes: A Tall Order

(a) If Hagrid is five times as wide (across the shoulders and front to back) and twice as tall as a normal person, we might expect him to have 50 times the volume of a normal person (5 5 2) and, therefore, eat 50 times as much food. Instead of eating one candy bar for an after-school snack, Hagrid might eat a box of 50 candy bars! (b) Additional ideas based on a Sesame Street theme can be found at the Sesame Workshop Web site at www.sesameworkshop.org/.

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Activity #10
Subtracting the Ads

Commercials pay for the programs that are produced for commercial network television. These activities explore the amount of time spent watching commercials. (a) Ask students to watch a half-hour network television program. They should keep a tally of all the commercials that appear during that half hour, and count the number of tallies at the end of the program. The class should pool these data and make a class frequency chart, comparing the number of commercials in different types of television programs. (b) Ask students to guess how many minutes in a 30-minute television program are devoted to commercials. Have them gather data on a variety of shows at different times during the week and average the information. Estimate the amount of actual programming for a 60-minute television show or a 2-hour movie. Discuss whether the time of day or type of program makes a difference. Construct a chart containing the information and display it in the library or in the cafeteria or share it during a Family Math Night.
Teachers Notes: Subtracting the Ads

(b) One way to collect the data is to videotape a program and fast forward to the commercials, then time the commercials and subtract their length from the total program length. This information can then be displayed in a table, as a bar graph, or as a series of circle graphs to compare the data for a variety of types of television programs. Children may be interested, for example, in whether more time is spent on commercials for Saturday morning cartoons or weekday evening game shows. They may also want to discuss the content of the commercials, since advertisers target particular viewers of certain types of programs.

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Activity #11
How Do You Rate?

The most famous measure of television viewing is published by Nielsen Media Research and called the Nielsen ratings. These ratings provide the advertisers and the public with data about the number of people viewing programs at particular times. Network advertising executives use the number of viewers found to calculate advertising rates. In the United States only about 5000 televisions, out of the 99 million households with televisions, are actually monitored to determine the results of the Nielsen ratings. A careful sampling process is used to determine the ratings. Students can model this sampling process as follows: Suppose that out of 100 households with a television, 40 are not being watched at all. Of the other 60 households, 25 are watching program A, 13 are watching program B, another 13 are watching program C, 7 are watching program D, and 2 are watching program E. Without giving the students these numbers, give teams of students a paper bag containing this mixture of colored cubes: 40 red, 25 yellow, 13 green, 13 black, 7 blue, and 2 white. Have the students shake the bag to mix the cubes. Randomly draw 20 of the cubes (representing a 20% sample of the model population of 100 households with televisions) and record the results. Replace the 20 cubes in the bag and repeat the process several times. Then each team of students should make a conjecture about how many of the households out of 100 are watching television and how many of those are watching each of the five programs. Discuss how their conjectures changed as they ran more than one sample and the importance of shaking the bag and comparing samples.
Teachers Notes: How Do You Rate?

The sample size used in the Nielsen ratings process is less than 1%, but the statistical methods employed and their quality checks make it a very accurate poll. For details, visit the Nielsen Media Research Web site at www.nielsenmedia.com. What students should realize is that several samples of cubes begin to show patterns. They should notice, for example, that almost half of the television households are not tuned in to a program at all and that the yellow program is the most commonly watched, having twice the viewers of the green and black programs, respectively. The white program has a 2 rating and may not even be drawn by a group conducting a few samples. Students should get the feel for sampling. They should notice that it is not necessary to count every cube in the bag to get a sense of program popularity, just as Nielsen Media does not have to monitor every television in the country to determine ratings. Older students might enjoy a discussion of the meaning of rating versus share. In the Nielsen Media Research reports, a rating is the ratio of how many households are watching a program compared with the total number of households having a television. However, a share is the ratio of the number of households watching a particular program compared only with the number of households that have a television turned on at the time. So while the number of households watching program A (yellow) is 25, we would say that the television program has a rating of 25 (25 out of 100, or 25%, of the households who own a television) but a share of 42 (25 out of 60 households watching television, or 42% of the viewing audience). Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002
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Activity #12
Wheeling and Dealing

In the game show Wheel of Fortune, three contestants compete to earn money and prizes for spinning a wheel and solving a word puzzle. The game requires some understanding of probability and the use of the English language. (a) Play the Wheel of Fortune game with the class. Begin by creating a playing wheel that has eight spaces (sectors) marked $3000, $750, $900, $400, Bankrupt, $600, $450, and Lose a Turn. (Younger childrens game wheels may use smaller dollar amounts.) Divide students into two teams, and have them spin the wheel and guess the missing letters in an English phrase. Each time the letter appears in the puzzle, the team receives the amount of money spun on the wheel, multiplied by the number of times that the letter appears. If the letter does not occur, the other team gets to spin the wheel. Calculate the amount of money accumulated. The winner is the team that guesses the puzzle when it is their turn, keeping all of the money that has been accumulated. Play several rounds of the game. (b) Discuss the reasons why students chose particular letters of the alphabet to try to fill in letters in the puzzle. Clearly, some letters occur more frequently than others in the English language. To get a sense of the common usage of letters, randomly select a paragraph out of a book and count the frequency with which each letter appears in the paragraph. Compile the data, and calculate the frequency of letter occurrences as percents. Using this information, determine which letters are best to choose when playing Wheel of Fortune. Students may want to compare the frequency of letters using a passage in another language, such as French or Spanish. (c) Explore some additional mathematical implications of the Wheel of Fortune game. For example, if the sample wheel described in part A has been constructed, students could pursue such questions as In how many ways could a person earn exactly $3600 before guessing the puzzle? Students should recognize that, for example, one could spin $3000 and then $600, or could earn $600 six times, $450 eight times, and so forth. They can determine how that given amount could be earned in the least and the most number of spins. Students can also pursue this question: Is it possible for a person to win exactly $5000? Finally, students can determine probabilities associated with the wheel. For example, what is the probability of a spin landing on at least $750? What is the probability of landing on Bankrupt or Lose a Turn? What is the probability of spinning three Lose a Turns in a row? Older students can subdivide the wheel into smaller sectors and explore similar questions.
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Activity #12
Teachers Notes: Wheeling and Dealing

(a) This game can also be adapted as an interdisciplinary activity working with the foreign language department or as part of an ESL program. (b) Results on which letters are used most frequently will vary somewhat from source to source. In the table below, the letters are listed by their average frequency of occurrence (in English) in a random set of 1012 letters (Santa Cruz Public Libraries, 1999).
Letter Occurrence (out of 1012)

E T A O N R I S H D L F C 131 105 82 80 71 68 63 61 53 38 34 29 28 M U G Y P W B G V K J Q Z 25 25 20 20 20 15 14 14 9 4 1 1 1
When the letters in Charles Dickenss A Tale of Two Cities are counted, the frequency list is E, T, A, O, N, I, H, S, R, D, L, U, M, W, C, F, G, Y, P, B, V, K, Q, X, J, Z. The order of letter usage in French is E, A, S, I, T, N, R, U, L, O, D, C, M, P, V, Q, G, F, B, H, J, X, Y, Z, K, W. In Spanish, the list is E, A, O, S, R, N, I, D, L, C, T, U, M, P, B, G, Y, V, Q, H, F, Z, J, X, W, K. (c) The probability of spinning at least $750 is 3/8 or .375 ($750, $900, or $3000). The probability of landing on Bankrupt or Lose a Turn on a spin is 2/8 or .25. The probability of spinning three Lose a Turns in a row is 1/8 1/8 1/8 = 1/512, or approximately .002.

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Bibliography and Additional Resources

AC Nielsen Media Research. Nielsen Media Web Site. 2001. www.nielsenmedia.com. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Academy Awards. 2001. www.oscar.org. Beaton, Albert E., Ina V. S., Mullis, Michael O. Martin, Eugenio J. Gonzalez, Dana L. Kelly, and Teresa A. Smith. TIMSS: Mathematics Achievement in the Middle Years. Boston, Mass.: Boston College, Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation, and Educational Policy, 1996. Eagle Communications. Eagle Communications Inc. 2001. www.eaglecom.net. Geisel, Theodor Seuss. Green Eggs and Ham. New York: Random House, 1960. www.randomhouse.com Great Plains National Instructional Television Library and WNED-TV. How Much Is a Million? Lincoln, Neb: Great Plains National Instructional Television Library, 1996. Videorecording. MovieWeb. Top 50+ All Time Highest Grossing Movies. 2001. www.movieweb.com/movie/alltime.html. Nando Racingserver. www.racingserver.com. Newton BBS. Ask-a-Scientist Archive: General Topics. 2001. newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen98.htm. Recording Industry Association of America. 2000 U.S. Consumer Trends. 2001. www.riaa.com. Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. Illus. by Mary GrandPr. New York: Scholastic, 1997. Santa Cruz Public Libraries. Frequency of Occurrence of Letters in English. 1999. www.santacruzpl.org/readyref/files/g-L/ltfrqeng.shtml. Schwartz, David A. How Much Is a Million? New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1985. Sesame Workshop. Explore the World of Sesame Workshop. 2001. www.sesameworkshop.org/. Shakespeare Globe Centre (USA). Globe Research Archive. 2001. www.sgc.umd.edu/model.htm. Shakespeares Globe Research Database. The Building of the First and Second Globes. 2001. www.rdg.ac.uk/globe/research/rsbuildg.htm. SSA National Web Team. The Space Shuttle. 2001. seds.lpl.arizona.edu/ssa/docs/Space.Shuttle/ index.shtml.

02 April 26, 20
Promoting WLME 8
On Friday, April 26, 2002, we ask that you broaden your role of participant to that of community mathematics promoter in your community by involving the news media. The following steps will help you inform your community of the event and obtain media coverage that will show positive activities taking place in your classroom and in your school. Make a list of all the local media that you want to reach, including newspapers, radio, and television. Identify the reporters who cover education issues for these media. Write a short (one page) media alert for your local media. Be sure to include who, what, when, where, why, and how. (Note: a media alert is much easier to write than a news release, since it is composed of short tidbits of information. See the sample alert for guidance in composing your own.) MEDIA ALERT WHO: Your name, grade or course, and the name of your school. If local business or community groups are participating with you, be sure to list them as well. WHAT: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics presents the eighth Worlds Largest Math Event, Entertaining Mathematics. WHEN: Friday, April 26, 2002 (Include a specific time, if appropriate.) WHY: In celebration of Mathematics Education Month. NCTMs Worlds Largest Math Event promotes the beauty and utility of mathematics in everyday life. This years theme, Entertaining Mathematics, explores mathematics in the entertainment media. HOW: Students will engage in enriching mathematical investigations and problems about the world of entertainment, ranging from analyzing sales of CDs to comparing the speed of a hockey puck slapshot to that of superman. Type your media alert on your schools letterhead. Be sure to include a contact name and telephone number so that interested reporters can contact you easily. Mail the media alert at least one week before the event to give reporters time to check their schedules and gather any additional information they may need to cover the story. Follow up with a personal phone call to the reporters you contacted. If you anticipate coverage by your local media, get permission from parents or other caregivers for children to be photographed and interviewed before the event. This precaution will save reporters time and earn you their gratitude.

02 April 26, 20
About NCTM
Become a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). For more than seventy-five years, we have been promoting mathematics education and professional growth for educators. You are invited to join our ranks and to solicit others to join the Council. NCTM publishes four journals for mathematics educators: Teaching Children Mathematics, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, Mathematics Teacher, and the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. Dues support the development, coordination, and delivery of the Councils services. Dues for individual membership are $68 (U.S.), which includes a subscription to one of the four journals, a subscription to the NCTM News Bulletin, and other benefits, such as a 20 percent discount on NCTM products and publications. Special rates for students, institutions, bulk subscribers, and retired members are available from the NCTM Headquarters Office, 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-1502. Telephone: (800) 2357566; fax: (703) 476-2970; e-mail: infocentral@nctm.org; Web: www.nctm.org.
Copyright 2002 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 1906 Association Drive Reston, VA 20191-1502 (800) 235-7566 Fax (703) 476-2970 www.nctm.org All rights reserved. Illustrations by Jeffrey Pelo www.jeffreypelo.com

02 April 26, 20

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Introduction and Acknowledgments

Are You My Type?

Teachers Notes: Are You My Type?

Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002

Name That Medium

Percent of CD & Cassette Sales from 1990 2000

Teachers Notes: Name That Medium

Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002

You Better Shop Around

Percent of Sales in Music Stores Versus Other Stores

Teachers Notes: You Better Shop Around

Teachers Notes: Gross Exaggerations?

Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002

Counting with Oscar

Teachers Notes: Counting with Oscar

Teachers Notes: Playing Around

Green Eggs and Ham Deluxe

Teachers Notes: Seeing Green

Moving Right Along

Teachers Notes: Moving Right Along

Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002

Teachers Notes: A Tall Order

Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002

Subtracting the Ads

Teachers Notes: Subtracting the Ads

Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002

How Do You Rate?

Teachers Notes: How Do You Rate?

Wheeling and Dealing

Teachers Notes: Wheeling and Dealing

Letter Occurrence (out of 1012)

Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002

Bibliography and Additional Resources

Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002

Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002

Worlds Largest Math Event 8April 26, 2002

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