It’s only March, but we’re all super excited for the summer already! Even though we’re just daydreaming, let’s use the opportunity to do some math problems (with a summer theme)! One thing we all love about the summer are those catchy summertime songs! See if you can recognize any of the summer hits in the following math problems!

1. “Cool for the Summer” by Demi Lovato is around 3 minutes long. If you listened to this song nonstop for the entire summer, how many times would it be replayed? (Assume your summer vacation is 10 weeks long).

2. You have 592 songs on your iPod. If you put your iPod on shuffle, what are the odds that you’ll listen to the summer classic “California Sun” by the Rivieras, followed by “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper? (no calculator!)

3. You love to listen to music while you’re running! If you decide to go jogging for 30 minutes, how many songs will you be able to listen to? Look up your favorite summer hits and add up their times!

Challenge Problem: Being bored over the summer, Maxwell decides to go to a concert! During the concert, he is seated at a relatively close distance to the stage. During the concert, the singer throws some free merchandise out into the audience, right in Maxwell’s direction! If the singer throws the merch at a 59 degree angle over vertical, what’s the initial velocity at which the singer must launch the merchandise so that it reaches Maxwell? Assume that Maxwell is 130 feet away from the singer, and that the two of them are standing at the same elevation. (You may need to use some physics equations to solve this problem!) ‘

We hope that these summer-themed math problems reminded you of sunnier days! For more fun ways to learn about math, visit The Mathnasium of Palo Alto-Menlo Park.