# Dinosaurs and Mathematics! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 11, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-and-mathematics/655397 "2013-04-11T13:38:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-and-mathematics/655397/1 "2013-04-11T13:38:35Z")
So, I’m looking for ideas for a fun adult-oriented activity or game involving dinosaurs but it has to have some mathematical content. And not just colouring in or counting! My SO is hoping to be involved in an evening dinosaur-themed event which will involve hundreds of people wandering about the venue (a big museum) seeing and doing ‘dinosaur’ related things, along with having some drinks. She’s looking for some tabletop activity people can try which will incorporate some sort of maths aspect with dinosaurs (either to do with their physiology or the study of them, or whatever). But she’s stumped at what to do as nothing’s come to mind. Basically, she wants to sit at a couple of tables and demonstrate how maths is useful even in the context of dinos! It has to involve maths because that’s what she does. Her ‘team’ will be herself and two or three colleagues to spell each other over the evening. She’s done similar events there before - for a recent Viking one she found a way to involve knot theory that worked very well… ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-and-mathematics/655397/2 "2013-04-11T14:09:58Z")
Something like [this](http://xkcd.com/135/)? ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-and-mathematics/655397/3 "2013-04-11T14:26:46Z")
Thanks! I’ll pass it on but I fear it might be tricky adapting it into something slightly drunk adults might find fun and yet informative! ---
**Author:** ![RickG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickg/32/5174_2.png) [@RickG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickG)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-and-mathematics/655397/4 "2013-04-11T14:48:16Z")
Seems like something could be done with the [Square-Cube Law](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_cube_law). ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-and-mathematics/655397/5 "2013-04-11T16:52:52Z")
Probability/venn diagrams of various dinosaur traits? 200 total dinosaurs. 120 eat plants. 120 eat meat. How many eat both plants and meat? 140 are quadropeds. 50 have spikes. 72 lived in the cretaceous… etc. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-and-mathematics/655397/6 "2013-04-11T16:56:48Z")
Thanks; I’ll run these ideas past her… ---
**Author:** ![Peaton\_of\_peat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecae2f/32.png) [@Peaton\_of\_peat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peaton_of_peat)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-and-mathematics/655397/7 "2013-04-11T19:57:51Z")
[Tail whips](http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/275/description/Whips_and_Dinosaur_Tails) count as based on math, right? You could segue from that to talking about decibels, and how a whip like that of 200 dB would be [10,000,000,000 times louder than a jackhammer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_pressure#Examples_of_sound_pressure_and_sound_pressure_levels). Then there’s the tooting of hadrosaurs, you could do something about acoustics, maybe bring in a handful of different vuvuzelas? 😛 **RickG** ’s suggestion is a good one too, maybe something comparing the size of pterosaurs with the size of their wings. Basically anything to do with physics should involve math. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-and-mathematics/655397/8 "2013-04-11T20:30:23Z")
> [@RickG](#): > > Seems like something could be done with the [Square-Cube Law](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_cube_law). Oo, you mean, like surface area to volume ratio? Interesting, I like it. There’s a general principle of biogeography stating that mammals get larger the further away from the equator they live. OP, please point out this resource to your SO: [http://howtosmile.org/](http://howtosmile.org/) I did a quick search and found 413 math activities mentioning dinosaurs. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dinosaurs-and-mathematics/655397/9 "2013-04-12T10:46:32Z")
Thanks for the replies; she should find them very interesting. Except somehow I doubt the organisers would appreciate the vuvuzela idea… 🙂