The Ant Pedometer
Scientists once wondered how Saharan desert ants find their way home in the flat, featureless sand. They discovered that ants have a built-in "pedometer" that counts every step they take! To prove this, researchers did something very strange: they gave some ants "stilts" (tiny bristles glued to their legs) and others "stumps" (shorter legs). The ants with stilts walked 15 metres instead of 10 because their strides were longer, and the ants with stumps only walked 6 metres. They were counting the right number of steps, but their new legs changed how far each step took them!
Wee Ones
If you have a 10-centimetre stick and an ant on "stilts" that is 2 centimetres tall, which one is longer? Which one is shorter?
Little Kids
An ant is carrying 14 crumbs to its nest. If it drops 6 of them along the way, how many crumbs does it have left? If it goes back and picks up those 6 crumbs, how many will it have again?
Big Kids
If an ant with normal legs takes 100 steps to walk 2 metres, how many metres will it walk if it takes 250 steps? Use a ratio to find out!
The Sky's the Limit
The distance an ant walks is found by multiplying the number of steps by the length of each step. If a normal ant has a step length of 2 centimetres, and an ant on stilts has a step length that is 50 percent longer, how many steps does the ant on stilts take to walk 30 metres? Hint: change metres to centimetres first!