The Math of Road Trips

Jun 6, 2023 | Bryan

You decided to take a road trip! Yay, but don't do all the planning yourself. When you plan a road trip, you use math literally every step of the way. So today, we’re going to walk you through a few steps of planning a road trip so you can see how math helps you get from point A to point B successfully.

Involve your kids and show them how math skills relate to the real world! You can either work on this together or let them figure it out.

  • Plan your route (map skills).
  • Determine the number of miles to travel round trip (addition).
  • How long will it take based on the speed limit of the roads? (division).
  • Using your car's average MPG, how many times you'll need to "fill-up" (division).
  • Research the cost of gas where you are traveling and average it (data collection).
  • Estimate the total cost of gas (multiplication).
  • What other costs will you incur: hotel, food, entertainment, etc. (addition).

So take a load off, let your kids do the number crunching. Then enjoy the trip!