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ALL ABOARD: THE TRAIN FACTORY

Here are some activities that you can do with your children when you return to school or as homework assignments. These are designed for middle school students and correspond to The Train Factory exhibit.

1.THE ROCKET weighs 8.4 tons. How many pounds is that? Write in scientific notation and standard form.

2. THE ROCKET was in service for about 40 years and went 310,164 miles.  How many miles a year did it go? Round off to the nearest hundred and the nearest thousand.

3. Suppose 120 classes come to see The Train Factory a day. Each class averages 24 students. If each student tries all four pistons, how many tries would that be in a day? During a five-day week?

4. Tim and Tom are twins. They tried the "PUSHING TO SPIN" 5 times. Their speeds were 195 MPH, 187 MPH, 201 MPH, 158 MPH, and 189 MPH. What was the range, median, and mean speed?

5. LET'S PRETEND! We are at the Accident Investigation. The diameter of the big wheel is about 5 feet. What would be the radius and circumference of that wheel?

6. The boiler plate cost $1090 on April 17, 1925. If something today costs about 450% more than it did in 1925, about how much would the boiler plate cost today?

7. The Acme gauge only measured 140 psi. It needed to measure 250 psi. What % of the needed pressure did it measure? What % does it need to increase to come up to standard?

8. East Meets West! In 1747, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads constructed about 2,000 miles of track going from east to west. There were 25,000 laborers used. If 10,000 were Irish, German, and English, what % of the total is that? If 12,000 were Chinese, what % was that?

9. THE BALDWIN 60000 was designed to pull 22 times its weight, and it weighs 350 tons. How many pounds can it pull?

10. A Ride Through History

YEAR MILES OF RAILROAD TRACK
1830 23
1840 2818
1860 30,626
1869 52,922
1917 250,000
1959 220,000
1995 146,144

Make a line graph to show the amount of track from 1860-1995.

In 1995, there was about 50 times more track than in _______________.

There was about ______________ times more track in 1917 than in 1869.

11. In 1957 the number of railroad passengers dropped to 413,000,000—less than half of that in 1945. Which of these would be true?

  • In 1945, there were 826,000 passengers.
  • In 1945, there were more than 826,000 passengers.
  • In 1945, there were fewer than 826,000 passengers.

Solutions to All Aboard

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