Estimating six million
How long would it take you count until 6 million?
This exercise is really easily explained, but much less easily done!
In the first instance you should just try and do this exercise with out reading the tips that are below. See if you can think of the issues yourself!
When you have your estimate, you should check the following list of points to see if you have made important considerations!
- How long does it take you to say a number?
- Do some numbers take longer to say than others?
- How can you make a good estimate at the average length of time it takes you to say each of the numbers from 1 to 6 million?
- How long does it take you to say each of the numbers from 2,533,231 to 2, 533,240? How does this help answer the above
- How many seconds are there in a minute, hour, day?
- Have you converted your answer to days or weeks or months?
- Have you considered how many hours a day you should be able to count for?
- How do you take the above into account trying to come up with a total?
- How well laid out and justified is your estimate?
- Have you double checked your calculations?
Make sure you have explained very clearly how you have arrived at your estimate and then compare your estimate with others made by people in your class! How different are they? Have a good discussion about it with each other and try to agree as a whole class on an estimate for the time it would take you to count to 6 million! Good luck!
Lastly, ask yourselves and your teacher why the number six million was chosen? What can it represent? How does this exercise help us understand the meaning of the number?
© Jimnoble, www.teachmathematics.net