Student Answers To Hummingbird Challenge Question # 2

Challenge Question # 2
"Approximately how many hours does the typical trip across the Gulf of Mexico take, if a hummingbird beats its wings 4 million times at a rate of 75 wing-beats per second?"

From: NEW JERSEY
It takes approximately 14.81 hours for a hummingbird that beats its wings 75 times a second for a total of 4,000,000 wing-beats to cross the Gulf of Mexico.
Stephen Theodos
Iselin Middle School
Grade 7 ISELIN MIDDLE SCHOOL (ims@gorgon.com)

From: MASSACHUSETTS
Liana Rasmussen and AJ Newell from Mrs. Amaru's class at Nauset Middle School in Orleans, Cape Cod, Mass., figured that the hummingbird beats its wings 270,000 times per hour, and would take 14.8 hours to cross the Gulf of Mexico.
JOAMARU@aol.com

From: PENNSYLVANIA
Q: Approxamatly how many hours does the typical trip across the Gulf of Mexico take, if a hummingbird beats it's wings 4 million times at a rate of 75 wing beats per second?
A: 14 hours, 48 minutes, 42 seconds
Gabi Shoemaker
Lock Haven Jr. High School
Lock Haven, PA
Nancy Heilman (nheilman@oak.kcsd.k12.pa.us)

From: MAINE
Hi! Journey North, my name is Allison and my friend Tabby. We think Challenge Question# 2 is 148 hours for a ruby-throated-hummingbird to fly over the Gulf of Mexico. We are from Pemetic Elementry School in Southwest Harbor, Maine.
From, Allison & Tabby
Fran Howley (grade5fh@pemetic.u98.k12.me.us)

From: MARSHALL ISLANDS
It takes approximately 8,611 hours for a typical trip across the Gulf of Mexico if a hummingbird beats its wings 4,000,000 times at a rate of 75 wing-beats per second.
George Seitz Elementary School Kwajalein, Marshall Islands
Audrey
Grade 6
George Seitz Elementary School (gses@tcsn.net)

From NORTH DAKOTA
It would take approxiametely 15 hours for the hummingbird to complete its trip across the Gulf of Mexico.
Jolina Miller
Des Lacs Burlington High School
Grade 10, 3rd hour
(miler@sendit.nodak.edu)

From VERMONT
Fourth graders from Ferrisburgh first wanted to know how many seconds it would take to cross the Gulf of Mexico. We divided 4 million by 75 and got 53,333.33 seconds. Then we divided the seconds by 60 to get the minutes. That was 888.88 minutes. Divide the minutes by 60 and you get 14.18 hours. So, we know that it would take over 14 hours to cross the Gulf of Mexico.
Craig, Andrea, David and Taylor
lthurfer@pop.k12.vt.us

From MINNESOTA
The Hummingbird takes 14.8 hours to cross the Gulf of Mexico. Kenneth
Belle Plaine Elementary
Belle Plaine, Minn.
0716bpel@informns.k12.mn.us

From ONTARIO
The typical trip across the Gulf of Mexico for a Hummingbird is 14.81 hours. The way I got this answer was I knew it beats its wings at a rate of 75 times per second and that there was 60 seconds in 1 minute, and 60 minutes in 1 hour. So I multiplied 60 x 60 = 3,600. There are 3,600 seconds per hour. Then I multiplied 3,600 x 75 = 270,000. Next, I knew that the hummingbird beats its wing 4 million times while crossing the Gulf of Mexico. Then I divided 270,000 into 4 million and came up with the answer of 14.81 hours per trip.
Kaiti-Jo Chianetti, gr. 5, Bobcaygeon Public School
Bobcaygeon, Ontario

From WEST VIRGINIA
Dear Journey North,
We are a third grade class at Kanawha Elementary School. We would like to respond to Challenge Question #2. We multiplied 60 seconds times 60 minutes. It equalled 3600. Then we multiplied 75 wing beats per second of the hummingbird and multiplied 3600 times 75 and got 270,000. We then divided 270,000 into 4,000,000 and our answer was 14.81 or rounded off to 15 hours to get across the Gulf of Mexico.
Sincerely,
Brittany Bunner, Megan Gorrell, Jasmine Davis, Andrew Breedlove, Kevin Vannoy
JR Null, (with help from Mrs. Lemon and Mr. Phillips)
jsphilli@p34.s212.c96.k12.wv.us (Jay S. Phillips)