Shooting-Star Skydivers
Skydiving is one of the craziest sports out there. You jump out of a plane thousands of metres up in the sky, fall at over 100 kilometers an hour, then pull your “parachute” to slow you down to land. But if LOTS of skydivers jump at once, they can grab each other’s arms to link up and make pictures in the sky.
These 164 skydivers hold the world record for the biggest crowd dive, jumping out of 7 planes. If you watch the video, you see how they steered themselves to fall faster or slower to meet each other in the sky. Some fell as fast as 200 km an hour! They planned out the design down on the ground, then figured out who should grab whom…after all, some divers have a stronger right or left hand, and some dive faster than others. Their totally awesome star shape broke the record of 100 group divers — and everyone’s parachute worked!
These 164 skydivers hold the world record for the biggest crowd dive, jumping out of 7 planes. If you watch the video, you see how they steered themselves to fall faster or slower to meet each other in the sky. Some fell as fast as 200 km an hour! They planned out the design down on the ground, then figured out who should grab whom…after all, some divers have a stronger right or left hand, and some dive faster than others. Their totally awesome star shape broke the record of 100 group divers — and everyone’s parachute worked!
Questions
Wee ones: How many points does the skydiver star shape have? Remember where you started counting!
Little kids: If 4 people grab hands, and they need 6 in total to make a loop, how many more divers need to join them? Bonus: The group’s very first dive had just 18 people. If you had gotten to be one of them, how many skydivers would have jumped with you?
Big kids: The old record had 100 people jump in a square. How many more divers did this group have? Bonus: If 12 of the 164 had made a center circle, and the rest of the divers had fanned out to make 8 equal chains, how many divers would have made each chain? (Hint if needed: 8 is 2 x 2 x 2, so to divide by 8, just cut in half 3 times in a row!)
Little kids: If 4 people grab hands, and they need 6 in total to make a loop, how many more divers need to join them? Bonus: The group’s very first dive had just 18 people. If you had gotten to be one of them, how many skydivers would have jumped with you?
Big kids: The old record had 100 people jump in a square. How many more divers did this group have? Bonus: If 12 of the 164 had made a center circle, and the rest of the divers had fanned out to make 8 equal chains, how many divers would have made each chain? (Hint if needed: 8 is 2 x 2 x 2, so to divide by 8, just cut in half 3 times in a row!)
Answers:
Wee ones: 10 points.
Little kids: 2 more divers. Bonus: 17 other divers.
Big kids: 64 more divers. Bonus: 19 divers per chain. They would have had 152 divers in the 8 groups, giving us 19 in each (152 can be halved to make 76, then 38, then 19. Also, 152 is one 8 less than 20 x 8 (160)).
Little kids: 2 more divers. Bonus: 17 other divers.
Big kids: 64 more divers. Bonus: 19 divers per chain. They would have had 152 divers in the 8 groups, giving us 19 in each (152 can be halved to make 76, then 38, then 19. Also, 152 is one 8 less than 20 x 8 (160)).