Estimating Large Numbers
MAMDMN1c
Names
How many people
are in a crowd? How
would you estimate the
number?

Make a square measuring 5 feet by 5 feet. Have as many of your friends
get inside the square as possible – as if you are watching a band at a small
club. Illustrate
Count the number of friends and find the ratio of this number to the
rectangle’s area. Explain in your own words what this means.

Now estimate the size of a crowd that is 10 feet deep on both sides of the
street standing along a 1-mile section of a parade route completing the
diagram here:

Let’s say that each person occupies 2.5 square feet. Using this
measurement estimate the size of a crowd that is 10 feet deep on both
sides of the street along a 1-mile section of a parade route.

Use the same fact (that one person occupies 2.5 square feet) and estimate
how many people could fit inside this classroom.

What other methods could be used to estimate the size of a crowd?