Sheet # 266/Desert Giant Math
Name: _____________________ Date_____________
Explain and Show Your Work.
1) There are many unusual shapes in the cactus world. Walking out among them, you might feel as if you are surrounded by people. If you walk quarter of a mile south, then quarter of a mile north, how many total miles have you walked through the desert?
2) The saguaro grows in the Sonoran Desert. This cactus can grow as tall as fifty feet. How many inches would this be?
3) The saguaro cactus can also weigh up to several tons and live for two hundred years. How many months are in two hundred years?
4) There is another sound in the desert. The Gila (Hee-la) woodpecker pecks deeply into the soft flesh of the cactus. If it pecks 52 times within one minute, how many times would it peck in 3 minutes?
5) Sometimes the Harris hawks use each other as perches while on a cactus. As many as three birds have been seen stacked on top of the saguaro! This is called Back Standing. If they stayed stacked this way for 3 1/2 minutes, how many total seconds is this?
6) In May the saguaro will blossom. Each flower opens only once, in the cool of the night, and closes by the following afternoon. If it opens at 3:00 a.m. and closes at 4:30 p.m. the next afternoon, how many hours has the saguaro been open?
7) By June, the saguaro blossoms have dried into brown stalks, and fruit has formed from the bases. As the fruit ripens, it begins to split open revealing tiny black seeds. If you gathered 4 fruits and each fruit had 225 seeds, how many total seeds would you have to plant later?
8) In the desert, there are 3 horned lizards waiting for fallen fruit so the ants will walk by. In a flash each lizard catches two ants with their long, fast, sticky tongues. How many ants have been caught in all?
9) At night, more fruit drops to the ground. A dozen coyotes arrive, 1/2 dozen javelina pigs want some fruit, 2 curved-billed thrashers come for food and 1/4 of a dozen harvester ants gather for the saguaro fruit. How many creatures are there in all?
10) After the saguaro dies, a whole new set of creatures move in to live in the saguaro. Inside the saguaro there are 13 termites, 1 black widow spider the size of a dime, 23 desert centipedes each around 2 feet long, and 14 cactus mice in the dead saguaro. How many termites and centipedes are there in all?
11) After the saguaro seeds are planted it takes four months for seedlings to appear. After 50 years, it begins to produce flowers and fruit. Then the arms of the saguaro appear after 3/4 of 100 years. How old is the cactus now?
12) The cactus giant towers quietly over the desert after 150 years. How many months is this in all?
13) The Tohono O odham (toh-HO-no o-O-dahm) Indians gather the saguaro's sweet fruit each year in the desert to make jams, candies, and syrups. If they make 2 1/2 dozen jars of jams, 4 pounds of candies, and 2 different kinds of syrups. How many individual jams did they make in all?
Answers for sheet # 266
1) half mile (1/2)
2) 600 inches
3) 2400 months
4) 156 times
5) 210 seconds
6) 13 hours 30 minutes
7) 900 seeds
8) 6 ants
9) 23 creatures
10) 13 + 23 = 36 termites and centipedes
11) 3/4 of 100 years is 25 years. Total age is 50 + 25 = 75 years
12) 1800 months
13) 30 jars of jams