How Can You Replicate This Prank?

 

 

• How much white tarp and black tarp would you need to replicate this prank?
• If you wanted to make a new message on the Hollywood sign, what would it be and how much white tarp and black tarp would you need?

 

These questions may be useful in helping students down the problem solving path:

• What is a guess for the amount of white/black tarp that is too low?
• What is a guess for the amount of white/black tarp that is too high?
• What information would be useful in figuring this out?
• What factors may affect your answer’s accuracy?

 

As seen in the video, the Hollywood Sign was converted from saying HOLLYWOOD to GO UCLA by some clever UCLA students. I was able to get in touch with one of them who shared the picture (below) he used to base his measurements off of. You can download a larger, more detailed version by clicking the “Download Lesson Files” button below.

To estimate how much material is needed, I’ve provided a similar opportunity using a grid for students. The Hollywood Sign is 45 feet tall, so I designed the grid paper so that each letter would be as close to 9 units in length as possible. That gives the grid a scale where each box is 5 feet long and would contain 25 square feet of material.

 

• Dimensions of the Hollywood Sign

• Hollywood Sign and “GO UCLA” sign on grid paper

 

• CCSS 3.MD.5 – Recognize area as an attribute of plane figures and understand concepts of area measurement.
• CCSS 3.MD.6 – Measure areas by counting unit squares (square cm, square m, square in, square ft, and improvised units).
• CCSS 3.MD.7 – Relate area to the operations of multiplication and addition.

 

• Wikipedia