Today from Bedtime Math: Living in a Lego House

Sure, the three little pigs built their houses out of straw, then sticks, then bricks. But did they ever think about using Lego? A few years ago people actually built a life-size house out of normal-sized Lego. A British TV show called “James May’s Toy Stories” brought together 1,200 people to build it, and it took them over a month! The 20-foot-tall striped house, which used more than 3 million bricks, even had a working toilet, a shower with running hot water, and a bumpy bed that probably wouldn’t be so comfy to sleep on. So many people wanted to help build the house that they started lining up at 4:30 a.m. that first day. No wolf ever came to blow the house down: it stood for a few days, then a team took it apart and gave away the pieces to kids. But we think this might have been strong enough for that third little pig.

Now here’s some brick-building math!

Wee ones: If the house used 5 Lego colors but you wanted to add green, how many colors would the house use then?

Little kids: If the stripes were white, red, blue, yellow, black, and then started over to repeat, what color would the 12th stripe be? Bonus: If you stand as tall as the 20th stripe, how many full sets of 5 colors would that be?

Big kids: Can you write the number 3 million in digits? How many zeros do you need? Bonus: The volunteers started building on August 1 of that year, and finished on September 17. How many days after starting did they finish?

Answers:

Wee ones: 6 colors.

Little kids: Red: since the colors repeat in 5s, it would be the same color as the 2nd stripe. Bonus: 4 full sets.

Big kids: 3,000,000, which has 6 zeros. Bonus: 47 days. August has 31 days, so August 31 is 30 days after the start. Then you add another 17 days.