It’s always a blast jumping in a big pile of fall leaves, as long as you’re sure there’s no dog poop in there. In many parts of the country, the fall weather changes the leaves on the trees to bright yellows and reds, before they fall to the ground and wait to get raked up. There’s a magical point when most of the leaves have changed color but haven’t fallen off yet, giving us “peak” leaf color. The thing is, the peak doesn’t happen at the same time everywhere, because the farther north you are, the sooner you’ll have cold weather. For instance, right about now Vermont and New Hampshire have peak color, but the leaves are still changing in New York and New Jersey, and in Virginia they’re even greener and have even longer to go. And that means waiting longer for the best part: leaves to rake up into a giant leaf pile.
Now here's today's math~
Wee ones: If you make leaf rubbings of 2 green leaves, 3 yellow leaves and 2 red leaves, how many leaves did you use?
Little kids: If your peak foliage happens today (October 16) and for your grandparents it will be just 3 days from now, what day will that be? Bonus: A good cold night brightens the leaf color, as low temperatures make maples turn red. If it’s a low of 50 degrees tonight but will be 10 degrees colder tomorrow night, how cold will it be?
Big kids: If you like to rake leaves row by row, and you get paid 50 cents per row to rake your neighbors’ lawn, how much do you get paid if it takes 18 rows of raking to rake their yard? Bonus: If the first 3 rows create a 2-foot-tall pile of leaves, and every 5 rows after that add another foot, how tall a leaf pile do you get to jump in when you’re done raking?
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Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Answers:
Wee ones: 7 leaves.
Little kids: October 19. Bonus: 40 degrees.
Big kids: $9. Bonus: 5 feet of leaves: 2 feet for the first 3 rows, then 3 feet for the remaining 3 sets of 5 rows.
