math in the news: issue 66

Math in the News

Data Analysis, Halloween Style

Halloween is here, a time to dress up in costumes, carve pumpkins, and go trick or treating. Did you know that farmers grow more than 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins each year? That’s more than twice the weight of the Empire State Building!

In this issue of Math in the News we take a look at pumpkin production compared to sales.

Math in the News

Watch this video to learn about the history of Halloween. http://www.history.com/videos/haunted-history-of-halloween#haunted-history-of-halloween

Math in the News

How many pounds of candy corn are sold each year? It’s 35 million pounds--nearly 9 billion pieces! Click here for more Halloween trivia.

http://www.visualnews.com/2011/10/30/how-many-pumpkin-seeds-halloween-by-the-numbers/?view=infographic

Math in the News

Use the table to answer these questions:•Which state reserves the most land for pumpkins each year?•Which state reserves the least amount of land for pumpkins each year? SOURCE: http://usda01.library.cornell.edu/usda/current/VegeSumm/VegeSumm-01-26-2012.pdf

Math in the News

Which state charges the most per cwt for pumpkins? Which state charges the least? (Note: Cwt stands for hundredweight. It’s a unit used for commodities. Basically, 20hundredweight equal a ton.)

Math in the News

Which state earns the most growing pumpkins? Does that state charge the most per cwt?