Our celebration of Groundhog Day and Groundhog Day continues with our second question about Phil and his time spent in Punsutawney.
Artifact
This scene from Groundhog Day.
Guiding Questions
- How long has Bill Murray (“Phil”) been practicing throwing cards into a hat?
- Has Phil spent more time throwing cards into a hat than you’ve spent in Math class this year? Your entire high school career?
- How good can you get at throwing cards into a hat after practicing for, say, 5 minutes? Can you make three in a row?
Solution
Rita: It would take a year to get good at this.
Phil: No. Six months. Four to five hours a day and you’d be an expert.
6 months = about 180 days.
180 days x 4 hours/day = 720 hours.
180 days x 5 hours/day = 900 hours.
Depending on the length of your school calendar and class periods, students are probably in Math class for about 200 hours/year. So that would be a “no” on Math-in-a-year vs. Phil-with-a-hat. But a “possibly” to Math-in-a-high-school-career vs. Phil-with-a-hat.
emergent math 