Today from Bedtime Math: More Than a Mouthful

Sharks don't seem like the friendliest, cuddliest animals out there. Their enormous jaws full of teeth don't help, that's for sure. For one thing, sharks have far more teeth than we do, which have to be counted in both "rows" and "series." Rows are counted along the jaw, and series indicate the depth from front to back. So to compare, if you have 20 teeth, you'd say those are 20 rows in one "series," while a bull shark can have 50 rows in 7 series, or 350 teeth! What's more, sharks continually shed all those teeth, with some sharks going through about 35,000 teeth in a lifetime. The good news is, those teeth aren't always chasing after us. Whale sharks, the largest known fish, can be over 40 feet long and have a 5-foot wide jaw, but they don't even use their 300 teeny teeth to bite - they just filter out teeny creatures from the seawater. But other sharks do use their teeth to bite, so don't go swimming with them at the aquarium!

Now here's today's math~

Wee ones: If you have 20 teeth and shark has 200 teeth, who has more?

Little kids: Megalodon sharks, which lived up to 25 million years ago, had teeth as long as 7 inches. If your hand is 5 inches long, how much bigger would that shark's tooth be?  Bonus: If you have 20 teeth yourself but suddenly grew a new "series" of 20 more behind them, how many teeth would you have?

Big kids: If a shark has 50 rows of teeth in 6 series, how many teeth does it have?  Bonus: If that shark lives 40 years, and sheds and grows back all those teeth each year, how many teeth does it grow during its life?

Answers:

Wee ones: The shark has more - by a lot!

Little kids: 2 inches longer.  Bonus: 40 teeth.

Big kids: 300 teeth.  Bonus: 12,000 teeth.