Astroclaus: Ho, Ho, Ho. Hello boys and girls. It's great to be here once again at NASA Ames Research Center to bring you Merry Math. I'm Astroclaus and I would like to bring a special hello to all you students here joining today. And here's a special hello to some of the students who made this all possible.

First of all, I'd like to bring out Max in Ms. Bardina's class and all of your friends in first grade. I see that you are all out there and I am very proud of you. Next I'd like to thank Michael in Mrs. [Bozo]'s class. Students at College Lake, Jessica, Allison, Lucas, you've all been very good this year. Miss Swaggart's class, Shelby in Illinois and Nick and Alexander. The lower [inaudible] elementary. Joanne in Washington, DC. NASA Headquarters, Ann [Blail] the West[wood] elementary. Miss Butt's kindergarten class, all of you can enjoy this special treat this year.

With us today is Dr. Joy and my Astro Elf Bonnie.

Astrobonnie: Hello Boys and Girls, welcome to Merry Math. I'm Astrobonnie and that's Dr. Joy.

Dr. Joy: Hi everybody.

Astrobonnie: Take your gloves off and stay with us for Merry Math.

Astroclaus: I sure will. Ho, Ho, Ho.

Astrobonnie: Okay, Astroclaus, Oh boy, you must have had a long flight in this morning, huh?

Astroclaus: Oh you bet I did!

Astrobonnie: Well, Dr. Joy, how are you doing this morning?

Dr. Joy: I'm doing well Bonnie.

Astrobonnie: We're glad to have you back this year.

Dr. Joy: Thank you for having me. I've heard that one of Santa's smartest elves. So I'm really happy you’re here, and I'm going to need some help with these problems.

Astrobonnie: Of course, Santa brought me in especially this morning to help you guys with the Merry Math for all those special boys and girls out there watching us this morning. Now just so you know we're broadcasting live today at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. Merry Math, what we're doing today is a NASA Quest production and if you don't know what NASA Quest is, it's an award winning interactive online project that showcases the fascinating men and women who work at NASA. Our engaging educational events encourage students, like you, to pursue careers in math, like we're doing today, and science, and technology.

Our program today focuses on elementary mathematical operations. Our contest submissions ended yesterday. Those were the answers that you've been sending in to us through the chat rooms that you're looking at right this very second. But, you're still welcome to send in your stumper to Dr. Joy. So if you or your classmates think of a really good stumper that you want to send in, send it on into the chat room because I have my Astro Elf Suzy at the North Pole reading over all the stumpers, and they're going to send me the very best ones at my computer here and I am going to read them to Dr. Joy when we take breaks during our Merry Math show. We'll see if we can stump her, right, Dr. Joy?

Dr. Joy: I'm sure you will be able to at some point Bonnie

Astrobonnie: I'm so excited.

Astroclaus: All right!

Astrobonnie: Now this event that we're doing this morning will be archived this afternoon by my Astro Elf up in the north pole. So if you miss any part of it or if you think its extra special and you want your friends to watch, you can come back to the Web site next week and watch it again. Now I also have some special information that I'm going to tell you.

First of all, I don't know if you heard, but if you saw the Web site we had a special astro sleigh contest where you could design your own brand new astro sleigh for our Astroclaus here because he needs a new super duper astro sleigh. So we've gone through all those entries and we've picked one and we'll be announcing the winner a little later in our show.

Astroclaus: I can't wait.

Astrobonnie: Also, if you sent in any answers or any entries for the sleigh, Astroclaus is going to reading your name off of his scroll. So listen to your name sometime during the show because you're going to hear it! Also, there's a special little boy out there watching right now, and he was a huge help to us when we were getting ready for this Webcast. His name is Max and he is watching with his whole class today out in California.

Astroclaus: Way to go Max!

Astrobonnie: Yay, Max! You're going to get a special treat under your Christmas tree this year.

Astroclaus: You Bet!

Astrobonnie: Also we really want to thank you for all the stumpers in the chat room, we got so many. So, we'll be going through and picking them during, and hopefully, we'll be able to stump Dr. Joy. Now you won't see all of your stumpers posted on your screen because they go to my elves first, and they're going to pick the best ones, and then we'll be reading one and it show up in the chat room. Now also, one last little thank you. Don James, he's the educational director at NASA Ames Research Center.

Astroclaus: Don is such a great guy.

Astrobonnie: He is a great guy, Astroclaus, because if it wasn't for Mr. James we wouldn't even be here. So, Yay! for Mr. James.

Astroclaus: Thank you!

Astrobonnie: All right Dr. Joy and Astroclaus, are you ready for our Merry Math?

Dr. Joy: Let's get started!

Astroclaus: We are ready!

Astrobonnie: All right! Astroclaus, let's start with our first question.

Astroclaus: Right on! Astroclaus eats 3 dozen cookies during his flight...

Astroclaus: He has 7 space deer and they each eat one dozen cookies during their flight. How many dozens of cookies does Dr. Joy need to bake for the flight?

Dr. Joy: We're going to use tally marks in the first grade class to arrive at this answer and the first thing that we need to do is count the number of space deer. I've heard that there are seven. So here they are.

We have 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 space deer and can you show us the tally marks, Bonnie?

Astrobonnie: Sure!

Dr. Joy: Now we also need to remember that Astroclaus eats three dozen cookies. So I will give three dozen cookies to Astroclaus then. One, two

Astrobonnie: Don't eat them all at once Astroclaus.

Dr. Joy: Are you hungry today?

Astroclaus: I have plenty of appetite.

Astrobonnie and Dr. Joy putting cookies on table

Dr. Joy: ...three, and then one dozen for each of the space deer.

Astrobonnie: That's right Dr. Joy.

Dr. Joy: 1,2,3,4. I don't have enough cookies.

Astrobonnie: Astroclaus, have you been eating the cookies?

Astrobonnie: Do you hide them in your [inaudible]

Astroclaus: Ho, Ho Ho.

Dr. Joy: ...5,6,7.

So you can see that we have three dozen, one, two, three, and seven dozen for each of the space deer, which makes ten dozen cookies.

Astroclaus: That's a whole lot of cookies!

Astrobonnie: I'll bet, but you're used to it, aren't you Astroclaus?

Astroclaus: You bet.

Astrobonnie: All right on to our next question.

Astroclaus: Our next question is...

Astroclaus: Astroclaus stops at every planet on his flight. He spends three hours at each planet. How many total hours does he spend at the planet? Hint: There are nine planets.

Dr. Joy: Well Astroclaus I have here the planets and your sleigh and boy, a lot of these planet look like Jupiter to me.

Astrobonnie: We couldn't get the real planets in for Merry Math, so me and my elves just kind of pretend planets.

Dr. Joy: Okay, well the first thing we need to do is count the planets. We'll make sure there are nine of them.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and we're cruising the planets.

We're spending 1,2,3 hours 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18, are you getting tired yet?

Dr. Joy: 19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27

Astrobonnie: So with my tally marks you can see that since we went three hours at each of the nine planets, we have a total of 27 hours.

Astroclaus: Wow!

Astrobonnie: That was a long time, Astroclaus.

Astroclaus: Very much so. Very much so. All right, we will continue on with our next question.

Astrobonnie: Okay.

Astroclaus: Astroclaus has just remembered he has to make a detour and stop off at the International Space Station.

Dr. Joy: Oh, cool.

Astroclaus: To deliver goodies to the astronauts on poster.

Astrobonnie: Oh, lucky!

Astroclaus: The astronauts all want M&M's because they are so fun to eat in micro gravity. There are three astronauts and they would like three bags each.

Dr. Joy: Three bags each?

Astroclaus: Three. How many bags of M&M's does Astroclaus need for the crew?

Dr. Joy: Well lets count those M&M's. First we have the three crew members.

1,2,3 astronauts. And if each astronaut wants three bags of M&M's.

I have 1,2,3 bags for the first astronaut. 4,5,6 bags, three for the second astronaut. 7,8,9 bags total because this astronaut gets three. So the answer is 9 bags of M&M's

Astrobonnie: Nine bags.

Astroclaus: Nine delicious bags of M&M's.

Dr. Joy: Yum!

Astrobonnie: Now don't you eat any M&M's on the way up or you wont have enough for those astronauts.

Dr. Joy: Here I'll give you one.

Astrobonnie: Okay, now since we've gone through three it's time for a stumper. Now lets see, if you could pass me my paper, I'll be able to get on to the Web site

Dr. Joy: Okay.

Astrobonnie: and see if I can get questions. Now let me see here. Okay.

Astrobonnie: Here's one from Tommy. Okay. He wants to know how many cookies, Dr. Joy, do you need to bake altogether? I think he's talking about the first question when Astroclaus has his three dozen and the space deer has one dozen each. He wants to know how many you have to bake altogether.

Dr. Joy: Well, let's see. I had 3 dozen for Astroclaus, 7 dozen for the space deer. That was a total of 10 dozen cookies, and we know that there are 12 in a dozen, so lets see. 120 cookies!?!

Astrobonnie: Oh my gosh!

Astroclaus: Holy mackerel!

Astrobonnie: I love making cookies.

Astroclaus: I love cookies.

Dr. Joy: Okay, for you, Astroclaus, I'll do it.

Astroclaus: Ho, Ho, Ho.

Dr. Joy: You're pretty lucky.

Astroclaus: Ho, Ho, Ho

Astrobonnie: Well should we read some names of boys and girls?

Dr. Joy: I have the list of first graders right here.

Astrobonnie: All right, lets read some names.

Astroclaus: All right. These are some of the students who have participated in this particular set of questions. Aaron, Kathleen, Rachel, Melissa, Abigail, Chris, [inaudible], Catherine, Ally, Wyatt, Hutton, Melissa, Andrew, Anderson, Adrian, Alexandria. All have been great little boys and girls. Carrina, [inaudible], [inaudible], Judy, Blake, Wallace. Miss Bloutt's fifth grade: Shelby, Josh, Mary Kate, Emma, John, Jake, Kevin, Julian, Eric, Tim, Adam, Ellen, Nate, Tray, Sariana, Jake, Paul, Kaleem, Carrie, [Chaca], Michael, Ricky, Caitlin, Melissa, Kim, Kareem, Nicole. Miss Butt's kindergarten class, [inaudible], Jennifer, Alicia, Jackson, Spencer, Kyle, Maria, Grecio, Aaron, Bronson, Sara H, Natalie G, Monique B, Alejandro R, Carlos, Ben, Keith, Allison, Mariah, John, Nicole, Kevin, [inaudible], Alan, Anelle, Honna, Alex, Anna. St. Joseph's first grade: Chris, William, Linda, Jordan, Jade, Alex, Kristin, Jessica, Hannah, Madison, Lindsey, Ryan, Yvan, Morgan, Courtney, Hannah, Deepa, Morgan, Lindsey, Danny, Alex, Emily, Kristin, Urdee, Amin, Austin and Jake. All were participants with these particular questions. Thank you so much for sending these in.

Astrobonnie: Wow! Astroclaus, that was a whole lot of children.

Astroclaus: Yes, it very much was.

Astrobonnie: Boy oh boy.

Astroclaus: [inaudible] my trip.

Astrobonnie: There's a lot of good little boys and girls out there this year, that's for sure! Well it looks like we're about ready for our next set of questions. So, Astroclaus, are you ready for the next set?

Astroclaus: You bet I'm ready.

Astrobonnie: Okay. Dr. Joy are you ready?

Dr. Joy: I'm getting ready, I'm almost ready.

Astrobonnie: Okay.

Astroclaus: All right.

Astrobonnie: Get all your stuff together because this one's getting a little bit tougher.

Dr. Joy: Okay, I'm ready.

Astrobonnie: Okay.

Astroclaus: Astroclaus drinks two gallons of hot chocolate during his intergalactic mission. Dr. Joy decides she’d better switch measurements to the metric system this year.

Dr. Joy: Good Idea.

Astroclaus: So she gives him 3 liters of hot chocolate. Does he have more or less chocolate this year? Hmmmm!

Astrobonnie: There you go Dr. Joy.

Astroclaus: That's a stumper.

Dr. Joy: Well we're going to look at the physical representation of these amounts. This is one gallon. This is two gallons. This is how much you used to drink Astroclaus? That's a lot.

Astrobonnie: Astroclaus, do you drink both of these? All 2 gallons?

Dr. Joy: Yes, he does.

Astrobonnie: Holy Moly.

Astroclaus: Doesn’t take much anymore.

Dr. Joy: We're comparing the two gallons to three liters. Here are the three liters. Now you can see that the liter is smaller than the gallon, but there is three of them. What do you think Bonnie?

Astrobonnie: There's three of those there? Maybe we should pour them in and see if they're the same or not.

Dr. Joy: That's a very good idea.

Astrobonnie: Okay

Dr. Joy: That's a good way to find out.

Astrobonnie: Because I'll bet some of you are real unsure about which one has more.

Dr. Joy: This is a good way to find out.

Astrobonnie: Okay

Dr. Joy: One

Astrobonnie: so that's the first one.

Dr. Joy: Two. We're trying not to spill your hot chocolate here.

Astroclaus: Oh, that's sacred hot chocolate.

Astrobonnie: Did Mrs. Claus make that for you?

Astroclaus: Very much so.

Dr. Joy: And we can see that the three liters doesn't even fill up one gallon.

Astrobonnie: And we still have this whole other...

Dr. Joy: You have a full and empty container.

Astrobonnie: Well, Astro, you're drinking a lot of liquid.

Dr. Joy: So the answer is that Dr. Joy is giving Astroclaus less.

Astroclaus: I need more.

Dr. Joy: With the three liters.

Astroclaus: I need more. More!

Astrobonnie: Oh Astro, hopefully the kids at home will give you some milk and cookies and you'll be fine.

Astroclaus: I sure hope so.

Astrobonnie: Are we ready for our next question?

Astroclaus: We are very much so.

Astrobonnie: Okay

Astroclaus: Dr. Joy has packed three dozen cookies for Astroclaus as snacks for his flight. This year there is a lot of turbulence and he doesn't feel like eating so much. He comes back with one dozen of uneaten cookies. If Dr. Joy gives each of the seven space deer one cookie. How many does she have left for herself? Hmmmm!

Dr. Joy: Hmmmm! Well Astroclaus, here is your sleigh and I have the 1,2,3 bags of cookies and I know you are eating two dozen?

Astroclaus: They're already gone

Dr. Joy: Oh, that leaves with me one dozen cookies. Now we know that there are 12 in a dozen, so lets count how many we would need to feed the space deer.

That would be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. So what we do to get answer to this question is subtract 7 from 12 and the answer is that Dr. Joy would have five cookies left.

Astrobonnie: There'd be five left.

Astroclaus: Hmmmm!. Five more for me.

Astrobonnie: Hee, Hee, Hee.

Dr. Joy: No.

Astrobonnie: Okay, so we have five left for Dr. Joy. So boys and girls, that's your answer. Now, are we ready for our next question?

Astroclaus: Yes we are.

Astrobonnie: Okay.

Astroclaus: It takes 90 minutes for the space shuttle to circle the earth. It takes Astroclaus one hour to circle Mars. Who is quicker with their space craft around the planet? The space shuttle circling earth or Astroclaus circling Mars? Explain your answer.

Astrobonnie: Oh boy! [inaudible] for this one.

Dr. Joy: This is an interesting question Astroclaus, what we need to do to compare you to the space shuttle is to convert to the same units of measure.

So what we do is take the one hour and we know that equals 60 minutes, and now can compare 60 minutes to 90 minutes and we know, of course, that 90 minutes is greater than 60 minutes.

Astrobonnie: All right, there's your answer.

Astroclaus and Astrobonnie: Wow!

Astrobonnie: Which means that you're faster.

Dr. Joy: Oh, I'm sorry I need to answer the question, don't I? Sorry Astroclaus.

Astrobonnie: So who's faster?

Dr. Joy: Well lets see, it takes 90 minutes for the space shuttle, Astroclaus takes 60 minutes. That means you're faster

Astroclaus. By 30 whole minutes.

Astroclaus: Wow!

Astrobonnie: You're faster than even the space shuttle.

Astroclaus: That's quite fast from what I hear. Ho, Ho, Ho.

Astrobonnie: What do you think? I think its time for another stumper. Do you guys want to do a stumper.

Astroclaus: Okay, let me go look on my computer.

Astrobonnie: Oh, my gosh, there's so many in here. Okay, here's one. Okay, Sarah. This one's from Sarah. If Dr. Joy really wants her own cookies, which she does...

Dr. Joy: And she does

Astrobonnie: and wanted to eat half of the dozen left over, do all 7 reindeer's get a cookie?

Dr. Joy: Well, lets see. We've already reviewed the fact that there are 12 in a dozen and we know that if we divide a dozen by two, half would be six cookies.

Astrobonnie: Oh no!

Dr. Joy: There are 7 space deer. Six cookies would leave one hungry deer. There would not be enough.

Astrobonnie: Oh, my gosh, you're right. So nope, Sarah, there wouldn't be enough.

Dr. Joy: Not enough

Astroclaus: In that case you can just give me the six cookies instead and nobody...

Astrobonnie: I bet you'd love that Astroclaus.

Astroclaus: Just joking kids.

Astrobonnie: Well lets read some more names since Sara got her name read. Lets read some more.

Astroclaus: Sure thing.

Dr. Joy: Okay. I have the list here.

Astrobonnie: Here come the names boys and girls.

Astroclaus: All right, let's see who we have this time. We have: Blake, Arisha, Bronson, Alejandria, Hannah, Yvan. Miss Costegum's class, [Devin], Keisha, Sabra, Shamira, Morgan, Amber, Regan, Jeremy, Michaela, Jordan, Todd, Tyler, Eddie, Michael, Annie, Stephanie, [Ghaneet], James, Christine, Nick, Melissa, Alicia, Curtis, [Kolsie], Lucas, Shante, Sanita, Destiny, Corey, Simon, Max, Taylor, Raymond, John, Fernando, Amira, Marcus, Charlene, Caitlin, Kyle, Miranda, Chelsea, Margaret, Shaday, Julie, Bobby, Donald, Megan, Andrew, Blake, Evan, Jacob, Zeit, Zack, Felicia, Samantha, Gabriel, Daniel, Jared, Adam, Ashley, Jessica, Deirdre, Justin, Ricky, and Chelsea. All good boys and girls. Thank you, thank you for your submissions.

Astrobonnie: Wow! I can't believe all those boys and girls are out there watching us right now!

Astroclaus: Right now. There are real troopers.

Astrobonnie: All right, boys and girls, lets see if you're ready for some more questions. Astroclaus are you ready?

Astroclaus: I am ready!

Astrobonnie: Okay.

Astroclaus: Are you ready?

Dr. Joy: I'm ready.

Astroclaus: All right. The shuttle can circle the earth in 90 minutes, it takes Astroclaus 24 hours to pack his sleigh before his journey. Estimate how many times the shuttle can circle the earth while Astroclaus is packing. Hmmmm!

Astrobonnie: Well we...

Dr. Joy: That's a good question.

Astrobonnie: We made another poster for this one.

Dr. Joy: That's a good thing. Okay, so the keyword in this question is to estimate. And we know that the shuttle can circle around the earth in 90 minutes. So what we can do to see how many times you can pack during, or how many times the shuttle can go around while you're packing, we estimate that 60 minutes is-, well we know that 60 minutes is one hour and that 90 minutes is one and a half hours.

Now if it took one hour we know that the shuttle can circle 24 times and if it took two hours it could circle 12 times. So any answer between 12 and 24 is a good estimate. That's how many times the shuttle could circle while Astroclaus is packing. The exact answer would be 18, which falls right in the middle of the estimate.

Astrobonnie: Okay.

Astroclaus: Very good.

Astrobonnie: So anybody who guessed a number between 12 and 24 is right! That's what's so great about estimating.

Astroclaus: Very good. Very good.

Astrobonnie: Fabulous.

Astroclaus: And for the next question. The SDS108 crew has 4 astronauts plus 3 new ISS crew members. They each eat one pound of food per day and their mission is to take the ISS, wait, excuse me, their mission to the ISS takes 3 days. How many pounds of food does the entire crew need before arriving at the ISS?

Dr. Joy: Okay, lets calculate the total pounds of food. We have the 4 astronauts that we had originally.

Dr. Joy putting the astronauts on the table

Astrobonnie: Three extra coming from the other side.

Dr. Joy: I found them, the three new and do you know the three new astronauts?

Astrobonnie: Boys and girls, I know the names of the astronauts. Now the first four up here, they were from expedition three and their names are Frank Colberson, Vladimir Dysuroff, and Mikale Churin and they spent 117 days as the station crew and now expedition 4 is Yuri Onanfranco, and flight engineers, Dan Borsch and Carl Waltz. They're going to stay until May of 2002. That's almost six months! That's a long time.

Dr. Joy: That is a long time.

Astrobonnie: They're going to need a lot of pounds of food.

Dr. Joy: Okay, so to answer this question, we have the seven crew members and I'm going to give them each three pounds of food. One for each day.

Here’s one pound for the first, second, and third. Three for him, three for him, that's three pounds there. Three for the sixth, and the last three for the seventh. So all we need to do is add the total amount of food.

We know that we have the seven astronauts and we have the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21. Seven times three, 21 pounds of food.

Astrobonnie: That sure is a lot of food up there.

Astroclaus: Yes it is.

Astrobonnie: They're not going to be up there long, really.

Astroclaus: I mean that's how much I eat in one day.

Astrobonnie: Oh, my gosh. I know you eat more than that in one day, Astroclaus.

Dr. Joy: Uh-oh!

Astrobonnie: Ready for the next question?

Dr. Joy: Ready.

Astroclaus: Yes.

Astrobonnie: Okay

Astroclaus reading the question on screen with Astrobonnie and Dr. Joy

Astroclaus: The new shuttle cockpit window is 36 centimeters in length, and for the first time in shuttle history, astronauts now can have a clear view of their surroundings during a mission. There are three astronauts living on the ISS. Astroclaus has recently decided to install a space shield on his sleigh to keep flying space debris out of his face.

Dr. Joy: That's a good idea.

Astroclaus: Yes it is. He wants his space shield to be twice as long as the shuttle window. What information given in the problem is not necessary to solve how long in centimeters the space shield will be?

Astrobonnie: Oh, boy, Dr. Joy, this is a big one.

Dr. Joy: It Is. I think that we need to do here is review the information that was given. The mathematical information that we received was that the new cockpit window in the shuttle is 36 centimeters. Lets see, that information we definitely need if we want to calculate twice as long as that. What other information do we have here? We know that there are three astronauts living on the ISS. Now do we need to know how many astronauts in order to calculate twice the length of the window?

Astrobonnie: Well all they want is the window, right?

Dr. Joy: That's right.

Astroclaus: Hmmmm!

Astrobonnie: Well we don't need to know how many astronauts there are.

Dr. Joy: I don’t think we do, so that information is irrelevant to the problem and that's the information that we do not need.

Astroclaus: Wow.

Astrobonnie: Well at least now we don't have to work with as many numbers, that's for sure.

Dr. Joy: That's good.

Astrobonnie: Okay, now lets do another stumper. Lets see now, let me get my papers in order. Let me grab my computer over here. Okay. Lets see now.

Dr. Joy: Okay. Come up with a good one.

Astrobonnie: All right. Santa thank you so much for this new computer.

Astroclaus: Hey.

Astrobonnie: You wouldn't believe how helpful it is.

Astroclaus: Amazing how small they are anymore.

Dr. Joy: I want one of those on my Christmas list this year.

Astroclaus: Consider it done.

Astrobonnie: I'll make it for you!

Dr. Joy: Thank You.

Astrobonnie: Okay. Lets see. We've got, let’s see, Michael in here. That's a little bit hard. Do you want a really hard one or a medium hard one?

Dr. Joy: I think medium hard one.

Astrobonnie: Medium Hard.

Dr. Joy: I'm sure there will be more really hard ones coming.

Astrobonnie: Hold on, we've got one here.

Astroclaus: Hmmmm!

Astrobonnie: Okay. We've got one here from Christina. Christina says, "If Astroclaus really had a new space shield built, how long would it be"?

Dr. Joy: Oh! From the previous question we know that if Astroclaus wanted twice as long as the shuttle window, and the shuttle was 36?

Astrobonnie: 36

Astroclaus: 36 centimeters

Dr. Joy: So I need to multiply 36 by 2 to get twice as long, 72 centimeters.

Astrobonnie: Well there you go Christina. We almost stumped her.

Dr. Joy: Is that right?

Astrobonnie: Yep, that's right. 72 centimeters.

Astroclaus: You are so smart, Dr. Joy.

Astrobonnie: You better keep trying to stump her because she's gotten the last few, but I really think we can get her, All right?

Astroclaus: All right. Time to read off some more boys and girls names.

Astrobonnie: Oh yes!

Astroclaus: All right we have the sixth grade Explorer Team, Cottage Lake: David, Adeline, Alex, Robby, Bryce, Ben, David and Warren. Alexandria, Jennifer, Erin, Sarah, Tyler, Ashley, John, Mahdee, Brianna, Simon, John, Winston, Daniel, Michelle, Kristen, Christine, Justin, Sheldon, Jordon, Stephanie, Taylor, Brianne, Alex, Mark, Violetta, Brad, Anthony, Joshua, Wyonna, Jordan, Risjon, Daniel, Kendra, Meagan, Chris, Nicholas, John, Joy, Lindsey, Philip, Mary Katherine Dakota, Chris, Brittany, Emily, Zack, Mackenzie, Allison, Chris, Ariel, Cory, Kristy, Justin, Miranda, Jennifer, Thomas, Tyler, and Morgan. Amanda, Tory, Carrie, and Joe. Thank you, thank you.

Astroclaus: You will all be getting great Christmas gifts this years.

Astrobonnie: All right, good job boys and girls and now I think we should take a little math break and do something really exciting.

Dr. Joy: All right.

Astrobonnie: I know all of you have been waiting to find out who the astro sleigh contest winner is, because we got so many entries and unfortunately my astro elves could only pick one. So let me explain this to you. Now, Astroclaus wanted a newly engineered sleigh since he's read about all the emerging technology here at NASA with space exploration. So he was asking for a paragraph that explained what it would look like, how it would function, and how it would fly, and he wanted to make sure that you mentioned lift, drive, thrust, and gravity. Those are special science terms. Now, we chose our favorite, and the winner is going to get an autographed photo of Astroclaus and Dr. Joy and surprise NASA gifts from our goody bag. So now, now let me tell you who the winner was. Her name was Alex from Cottage Lake

Dr. Joy: Congratulations, Alex.

Astroclaus: I am so excited to read what kind of sleigh I would have in the future here.

Astrobonnie: Okay, now tell all the boys and girls at school and at home what her entry was.

Astroclaus: This is a most excellent sleigh. I can hardly wait.

"My sleigh would have the latest of technologies. It would have super giant thruster, therefore, it wouldn't be controlled by reindeer so Santa wouldn't have to worry about them getting sick on him."

Dr. Joy: That's a really good idea.

Astroclaus: Yes it is. "To control, there is a joystick, the whole sleigh is controlled by a computer in the North Pole. There is a GPDS, a guidance present deliver system." Wow!

Astrobonnie: Wow. That's going to make your job so much easier.

Astroclaus: "There's a chute so it lands exactly in the chimney, bounces on the floor and lands under the tree by radar."

Astrobonnie: Wow, radar!

Astroclaus: "This will cut Santa's work time in half." Oh Yes, I do like that idea.

Dr. Joy: That's a good idea.

Astroclaus: "And he will have no more food on this bright red suit." Yes, Yes, the cleaning bills are crazy. "It has a ACBR, an automatic child behavioral report, which tells him whether they have been naughty or nice."

Astrobonnie: Uh Oh..

Dr. Joy: Oh..

Astrobonnie: ...boys and girls...

Astroclaus: Look out, boys and girls, we got new technology to find out who you are. Its goes 150mph...

Astrobonnie: 150!?

Dr. Joy: Wow.

Astroclaus: That is quite fast.

Astrobonnie: I hope it has seat belts.

Astroclaus: Thank you, thank you we really enjoyed your entry.

Astrobonnie: And boys and girls thank you for all of your entries too. You did such a good job being so creative and using your imagination. Now, Alex, we'll get in touch with you so you can get your special NASA prizes.

Okay. Now are we ready for some questions?

Dr. Joy: We're ready for grade 4 now, Bonnie.

Astrobonnie: That was a good break.

Astroclaus: All righty. The shuttle can circle the earth in 90 minutes. Astroclaus' new star powered sleigh can circle the earth in one hour. If the shuttle and Astroclaus had a race that went five times around the earth, how much faster would Astroclaus be than the shuttle? Hmmmm!

Dr. Joy: That's another interesting question Astroclaus, and I know that Astrobonnie has a poster prepared.

Astrobonnie: Yes I do. Here we go.

Dr. Joy: Okay. Okay. What I want to do first is figure out, in hours, how long it took the shuttle to go around five times, and since we know that 90 minutes is an hour and a half, we add an hour and a half, one-and-a-half, 1,2,3,4,5 times for a total of seven and a half hours that it takes the shuttle. Astroclaus is faster as we found out. Sixty minutes, which is one hour, so we have one hour five times for a total of five hours, and we can see that Astroclaus is two and a half hours faster than the shuttle.

Astroclaus: I need to be because I have so many deliveries to make.

Astrobonnie: You do have a lot of work, Santa that's for sure.

Astroclaus: Yes, I do. Ho! Ho! Ho!

Astrobonnie: All right

Astroclaus: All right, onto our next question.

Astrobonnie: Okay

Astroclaus: Astroclaus weighs 250 pounds. Ho, Ho, Ho.

Dr. Joy: Whoa! That's a lot of cookies there.

Astroclaus: Can't hide under that. Each of the seven space deer weighs 40 pounds. Dr. Joy weighs 120. The astro sleigh weighs 400 pounds. What information is not necessary to help you solve the problem of how much Astroclaus, his space deer, and his sleigh altogether?

Dr. Joy: Well Astroclaus this question is similar to a previous one where we need to review the information given to see that its all relevant to the problem. Now if we want to solve the weight of you, the space, and the sleigh, and we've given the information that you weigh 250 pounds? Astroclaus...

Astroclaus: I've weighed more.

Dr. Joy: We've given the weight of the space deer.

Astroclaus: I never tell.

Dr. Joy: We're given Dr. Joy's weight on some planet other than earth and the weight of the astro sleigh. And I think that the information that's irrelevant here, that we don't need to solve the problem, is Dr. Joy's weight.

Astrobonnie: Because Dr. Joy is not going to be there on Christmas Eve.

Dr. Joy: No, and I don't really want anyone to know that information

Astroclaus: Ho! Ho! Ho!

Astrobonnie: It will be our secret, won't it? Okay, are we ready for the next question?

Astroclaus: On to the next one.

Astrobonnie: Okay.

Astroclaus: It takes expedition one crew 36 hours to unload transfer three tons of food, clothing, hardware, and supplies from the supply ship that is docked at the ISS. It takes Astroclaus 24 hours to unload one ton of goodies from his astro sleigh. Who can unload more in a 12-hour period?

Dr. Joy: Who could unload more Astroclaus or the shuttle? I know that you have prepared a poster.

Astrobonnie: I have another poster for this one.

Dr. Joy: I'm really glad you did that Bonnie. What we need to do to solve this problem is to calculate how much can be unloaded by Astroclaus and the shuttle in 12 hours so we can compare the amount for the same period of time. So in 36 hours the crew on the shuttle can unload three tons. So we know that 12 hours goes into 36 three times. So if we divide three tons by three, we see that in a 12 hour period the shuttle can unload one ton.

Astrobonnie: A ton is a lot of weight.

Dr. Joy: That's a lot.

Astroclaus: That's a lot, that's even more than me.

Astrobonnie: That's right Astro, but not by much.

Dr. Joy: Well Astro we know that you can do one ton in 24 hours. Now 12 hours goes in 24 twice and so if we take 1 divided by 2 we can see that you can only unload half a ton in 12 hours.

Astroclaus: Wow

Dr. Joy: So the shuttle crew can do twice as much, they do one ton in the same amount of time that you do half a ton.

Astrobonnie: They must have more muscles.

Astroclaus: I do. Ho! Ho! Ho!

Dr. Joy: All right we have that answer.

Astroclaus: Do we have another stumper?

Astrobonnie: Oh my goodness. I think we need another stumper.

Dr. Joy: Oh, No, not another stumper.

Astrobonnie: All right let me get out my little mini Internet computer here. Let's check the chat room. Okay, hold on a minute here. Let's see. All right. Oh, my gosh, Oh, my gosh, really good one. This one's from Michelle. How much does Astroclaus, his space deer, and his sleigh, weigh altogether?

[cross talk]

Dr. Joy: [inaudible] do the extra information. Okay, Okay. Let me see if I can remember, Astroclaus weighs 250 pounds, the sleigh was 400, so that’s 650 and the space weigh 40 pounds each and there's 7 of them that's 280. So 930 pounds?

Astrobonnie: Let me check it. If you got this one right I'm going to be... You're right!

Astroclaus: And you did that without a calculator Dr. Joy.

Astrobonnie: They keep getting better and better and still she gets them. I want some really, really good ones for our next stumper boys and girls we've got to ...

Astroclaus: I think you’re way too smart for that device. We'll have to get you a super computer.

Astrobonnie: A super-duper computer. Let's read some more names!

Astroclaus: All right, boys and girls.

Astrobonnie: Okay.

Astroclaus: All right, we have Emma, Walter, Trevor, Cody, Gabby, Connor. Miss Franchesci's class, Garcias, Michael, Robby, Angelios, Olivia, Billy, Emilo, Taylor, Lauren, Ziggy, Evan, Hewlitt, Tommy, Mateo, Kelsey, Ashley, Julie, Isabella, Joe, Nicholas, Blake, Santia, Jacob, Deirdre, Jessica, Margaret Thomas Jefferson Middle School, Melissa and Katherine, Sierra, [inaudible] , Sabrina, Dion, Morgan Urban City School, Regina, Tasha, Ashley, Nate, Chris, Ryan, Kirby, Jeff, and Mercedes. Thank you. Thank you very much. You've all been good boys and girls.

Astrobonnie: All right boys and girls. Man, they just keep on coming in don't they Astroclaus.

Astroclaus: [inaudible]

Astrobonnie: [inaudible] you're all here and that you all helped us with these answers.

Astroclaus: Yes, thank you, thank you, boys and girls.

Astrobonnie: Its been so much fun too. Okay, are we ready for our last set of questions?

Dr. Joy: I'm ready.

Astrobonnie: Okay. How's your brain over there Dr. Joy?

Dr. Joy: Its getting really, really tired. I'm glad this is the last set.

Astrobonnie: Okay, Okay.

Astroclaus: Astroclaus is halfway through his mission, so half of his goodies have been distributed when meteors strike his astro sleigh. This accident causes him to lose half of his remaining goodies. What percentage of goodies does he have now?

Dr. Joy: This one's tough. These are getting tough, Bonnie.

Astrobonnie: I have the Astro sleigh.

Dr. Joy: I think what I'm going to do to try to figure this question out is assume that the load is four bags of toys and cookies and goodies. Four bags of goodies. So if you're going along Astroclaus and you're halfway through your mission and you say that you've distributed half. That means two of the four.

Astrobonnie: Half of four is two.

Dr. Joy: And the meteor shower....

Astroclaus and Astrobonnie: Oh...

Dr. Joy: and you lose another half

Astroclaus: Don't worry boys and girls, we'll still cover you.

Dr. Joy: Half of what is remaining is one. So what I have left of the original four bags of goodies is one bag of goodies.

Astroclaus: One bag.

Dr. Joy: Now one out of four is the same as 25 out of 100 and that means that you have 25% left after your accident with the meteor.

Astrobonnie: So 25% less. Now speaking of meteors I have to share with you the most exciting information. Now it seems to be that there was a meteor shower just last night. Actually, in the morning. Two o'clock in the morning. Now let me tell you about it, I've got some information on it. Now it was the Geminid meteor shower. Now some say it was the best, but about a month ago, there was another meteor shower called Leonid.

Dr. Joy: Now that was a big one.

Astroclaus: It was.

Astrobonnie: Now last night you could've seen, some of you boys and girls, if you were up late might have seen it, 75 meteors an hour. But, Leonid, which was last month, was more than a thousand per hour. So you can see that there's a lot of meteors flying around out there.

So, one other thing to remember is that these showers, they follow the orbits of comet's. Now comet's are out in outer space too. So these showers are following the orbits of comets. The Geminids that were last night, that hit Astroclaus, they were debris in the orbit of the asteroid. That means that there was just stuff flying around out in outer space, and we could see it just from our backyard at night. Isn't that great?

Astroclaus: That is totally impressive

Astrobonnie: That is so interesting. It's so great to be here at NASA because we get to find out all this neat science stuff.

Astroclaus: Yes it is.

Astrobonnie: Okay, let's do another question.

Astroclaus: Here's the next question. The shuttle lifts off at 17,500 mph. If the shuttle lifts up at a straight angle exactly perpendicular to the Earth, it takes eight and a half minutes to reach its orbiting height above the Earth. Astroclaus lifts off at half the speed of the shuttle. So it takes him twice as long to reach orbiting height above the Earth. What is the speed and length of time it takes Astroclaus to lift off and reach the orbit?

Dr. Joy: These questions are getting harder and harder.

Astrobonnie: Dr. Joy, I have shuttle and a sleigh for you.

Dr. Joy: Okay.

Astrobonnie: So let see if we can do it. I took a lot of math up at the North Pole but [inaudible]

Dr. Joy: Let's see we know that the shuttle goes 17,500mph...

Astroclaus: That is fast.

Dr. Joy: and when they're above the earth it takes eight and a half a minutes to get to where they need to go. Now you're telling me that Astroclaus takes twice as long?

Astrobonnie: So he must be slower.

Dr. Joy: Well twice as long means it takes him two times. He has, yes, he's slower, his speed is half of what the shuttle's is. Do we have a poster for this?

Astrobonnie: No, I didn't make a poster.

Dr. Joy: I can try to figure it out, but what we need to do to answer the question of his speed is just divide the shuttle's speed. So the shuttle's speed was 17,500 divided by 2. And that answer is 8,750 for Astroclaus.

Astrobonnie: They're fast, you're slow.

Astroclaus: That's still pretty fast.

Dr. Joy: Now the second part of this question is that if it takes Astroclaus twice as long, if Astroclaus is half as speedy how long does it take him, and we would know that it would take you twice as long if you had half the speed.

Astroclaus: Yes.

Dr. Joy: So we know that the length of time for the shuttle was eight and half minutes. To calculate how long it took you, we just multiply eight and a half by two, and so the length of the time for you...

All: Seventeen minutes!

Astroclaus: That's still pretty fast.

Astrobonnie: That's still pretty fast but it’s definitely slower than the shuttle.

Dr. Joy: That was a hard question, you guys. The questions don't get much work.

Astrobonnie: You better watch out for the stumpers, too

Astroclaus: This is an incredibly long question, but hang in there kids.

Dr. Joy: Oh no!

Astrobonnie: Oh boy.

Astroclaus: The intergalactic kids send their letters to Astroclaus via e-mail. He has just received a last second request in the midst of his deliveries. This little space kid has been extremely good this year and Astro wants to honor his wish. He is on a tight schedule and can only spare five minutes. It takes Astroclaus three seconds to send a request onto Dr. Joy. Dr. Joy takes one minute to read it and two seconds to forward it onto the Astro Elves. The Astro Elves take three minutes to design and create this special toy. Then they send a response back to Dr. Joy that takes two seconds letting her know that it is ready. Dr. Joy immediately forwards it onto Astroclaus, which takes 3 more seconds. She then sends out the swiftest space deer, Pluton. Good old Pluton.

Astrobonnie: Oh, I love Pluton.

Astroclaus: He delivers the toys to Astroclaus. This takes a half a minute. Will the toy arrive to Astroclaus before his spare five minutes are up?

Dr. Joy: Oh my gosh. That's a lot to do in five minutes.

Astrobonnie: That's a lot of math.

Dr. Joy: It's a lot of adding, Bonnie.

Astroclaus: Thank goodness those email systems are up and going.

Dr. Joy: Yeah, I know that you've created another poster.

Astrobonnie: Another poster.

Dr. Joy: So we can go back and review all of the time that you talked about. We have the 3 seconds, 1 minute, 2 seconds, 3 minutes, 2 seconds, 3 seconds, half a minute. If we add up all the minutes and seconds, lets see we have one and three, four and a half minutes, and 3,5,7,10...four-and-a-half minutes and ten seconds it takes to do that.

Astrobonnie: Well then that means he can do it.

Dr. Joy: Within the five minutes.

Astrobonnie: Yes! That means that the little boy or girl is going to get his present.

Astroclaus: Wow

Dr. Joy: Good.

Astrobonnie: That's a good thing. We also like to see them getting the right presents. We make them specially, you know.

Dr. Joy: Do you have another stumper for me?

Astrobonnie: Oh my gosh, you bet! I'm getting so many in my chat room. Log on there. Here it comes kids. Coming up. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I have to pick one, there's so many.

All right, hold on, hold on. Let me see our questions here and see if I can get any really good ones. Ooh! I got one! Okay.

Astroclaus has upgraded his technology and his access to e-mail is twice, oh my gosh, there's no way you can do this is in your head.

Dr. Joy: Well, you can try it, okay?

Astrobonnie: Okay. His access to e-mail is twice as fast for himself and Dr. Joy, how much time will this now take to transmit via email? Can you do that math in your head?

Dr. Joy: I don't think I can. I don't think I can do that.

Astrobonnie: Guess what that means.

Dr. Joy: You have a calculator there, I think you can do it.

Astrobonnie: That means that Davy from San Jose just stumped Dr. Joy!

Dr. Joy: All right Davy! But Bonnie being the smartest elf on the North Pole can give you the right answer.

Astrobonnie: Oh my gosh. Well if I had a calculator on my computer, I could.

Dr. Joy: Let's look at the poster and maybe we can figure this out with some help.

Astrobonnie: Here's the poster. Now it’s twice as fast. Everything is twice as fast.

Dr. Joy: Let's see. Four and a half minutes and ten seconds. So half a minute is thirty seconds, so this was four minutes and forty seconds and then we add another thirty seconds. I don't think we'd make it. I think that we would be just 10 seconds over.

Astrobonnie: But wait a minute, if it’s twice as fast...

Dr. Joy: Oh, twice as fast. This is such a stumper Bonnie. You're going to have to do it being the smart elf.

Astrobonnie: Okay. Let me see. Hold on.

Dr. Joy: We're truly stumped with this one.

Astrobonnie: Twice as fast...

Dr. Joy: Davy did a great job.

Astrobonnie: Half as long. So half of the four and a half minutes is two minutes and fifteen seconds and half of this is another five, so that's two minutes and fifteen seconds plus five seconds is two minutes and twenty seconds. That means...Davy, guess what, you stumped Dr. Joy but you didn't stump me because I'm a smart elf.

Astroclaus: I hired her.

Astrobonnie: Two minutes and twenty seconds.

Astroclaus: Ho! Ho! Ho!

Astrobonnie: Gotcha! Do we have time for another stumper? I'm really liking these. Let's do another one.

Dr. Joy: Okay.

Astrobonnie: Okay hold on, let's see here if we can find another one. Do we have something that goes with the question? Let's see. Here's another one from Ryan. Okay, he just sent one in here. Here's one from Ryan.

He says if there are seven reindeer, oh I think this one is going to stump you.

Dr. Joy: Oh Ryan.

Astrobonnie: Each gained six pounds of food a day, how much would they weigh in 5 years?

Dr. Joy: Five years?

Astrobonnie: Good job, Ryan. Can you do that one in your head?

Dr. Joy: No, Dr. Joy cannot do that math in her head.

Astrobonnie: Okay, well you know what that means boys and girls, maybe you could do the answers at home or with a partner in your classroom and send the answers in to our chat room. Let me say it for you one more time.

Dr. Joy: That's a good idea.

Astrobonnie: There are 7 reindeer and they each gained 6 pounds of food a day. So they start out at 40 pounds and then gain 6 a day, how much will they weigh in 5 years.

Astroclaus: They'll be as big as Astroclaus.

Astrobonnie: Oh no, I hope not they won't be able to fly. All right, well if you can do that one at home or at school or with a buddy, then send your answer into the chat room, and we'll put them up. Okay.

Okay, well we've gone through all the questions.

Astroclaus: Yes we have.

Astrobonnie: We announced the winner, good job Alex, and we've stumped Dr. Joy.

Dr. Joy: You have.

Astrobonnie: This means that our Merry Math session is over for this year.

Astroclaus: Thank you, thank you very much for attending this year and sending in all your answers. Next year boys and girls we will do this again.

Astrobonnie: And make sure that if you have any questions or anything you'd like to tell us, you can send it to the chat room and my Astro Elf will be reading all afternoon. They've scheduled the whole afternoon just to read through what you have to tell us.

So just get in that chat room and send us something. And make sure that you join us again next year for our Merry Math with Dr. Joy and Astroclaus.

Astroclaus: Ho, ho, ho, ho,ho

Dr. Joy: Merry Christmas, happy holidays.