This activity from Robert Kaplinsky involves a speeding ticket that was issued in Minnesota to a motorcycle traveling 205 mph!
The activity starts with the following image:
Then students are asked what “Speed Enforced by Aircraft” might mean. Students might say things like:
- use a radar gun
- fly the same speed as the vehicle and pace it
- measure the time it takes for the vehicle to cover the distance from one known point to another
The ticket in question was given out in 2004 in Minnesota. An officer in an airplane used the third method and measured the time it took for the motorcycle to move from one known point to another. Students discuss what information they would need to figure out the motorcycle’s speed. Then you give them an article about what happened, with the actual mph blocked out but with enough information available to figure out the motorcycle’s speed.
This activity is a good way for students to practice the following standard in Number & Quantity:
Use units as a way to understand problems and to guide the solution of multi-step problems; choose and interpret units consistently in formulas; choose and interpret the scale and the origin in graphs and data displays.
