Today from Bedtime Math: A Real Blockhead

We know we can build all kinds of objects out of Lego: cars, castles, rockets and whatnot. But usually they're a lot smaller than the real thing we're copying. Well, artist Nathan Sawaya has put together an incredible collection of life-size Lego figures called The Art of the Brick. Rather than your usual box of 200 or 300 Lego pieces, these sculptures use tens of thousands of pieces, and Nathan stacks them one brick at a time, just like the rest of us. He even has to glue the pieces together, since he ships the finished statues all over the world and can't risk having them fall apart after all that work. It takes him 2 to 3 weeksto build a person out of Lego...a little longer than that mini-police car.

Now here's today's math~

Wee ones: If you build a giant Lego sculpture of yourself out of red, yellow and blue pieces, how many colors are in your sculpture?

Little kids: If you need 5 Lego bricks for the toes on 1 foot and 5 more for the toes on the other foot, how many toe pieces do you use?  Bonus: If you add 1 little red piece on each toe for nail polish, now how many pieces did you use?

Big kids: If you can add on a Lego brick every 3 seconds, how many can you snap on in 1 minute?  (Reminder: A minute has 60 seconds.)  Bonus: If each ear needs 120 little bricks to make all those curves, how fast can you build a pair of ears at that pace?

Answers:

Wee ones: 3 colors.

Little kids: 10 bricks.  Bonus: 20 bricks.

Big kids: 20 bricks per minute.  Bonus: 12 minutes, since you'll need 240 bricks.