Futurama Math
Quantitative Literacy in "A Fishful of Dollars" Activity Sheet

1. Futurama follows Fry who had fallen into a cryogenic chamber and woke up 1000 years later. In the first season's episode "A Fishful of Dollars" (Season 1, Episode 6), in the year 3000, Fry wonders whether there’s anything left in his bank account. The bank teller says: “Ok. You had a balance of 93 cents... and at an average of two and a quarter percent interest over a period of 1000 years, that comes to...” Assume that’s compounded annually and set up the formula with these numbers plugged in and solve for the total.
   
   
2. When the bank teller tells Fry his total, he hyperventilates, drools and then faints. Congratulations Fry! Compare your response with the bank teller's total of 4.3 billion dollars.
   
   
3. What would you do with this money?
   
   
4. Among other purchases, Fry wants to spring for pizza for everyone. He wants anchovies but they aren't available in the year 3000. So, Fry gets into a bidding war with Mom, who leads a robot corporation named MomCorp, during an auction for the ``last known can in existence guaranteed fresh and edible.'' Fry bids one jillion dollars, but is told ``Sir, that's not a number'' and revises his bid to 50 million. What might the number 1 jillion represent and how could it fit into current numbers we use to represent large quantities, like a googol? Respond intuitively and then using scientific notation.
   
   
5. Research names of very large and very small numbers and then create your own names for large and small numbers that are currently unnamed.
   
   
6. Is there a jillion or googol of anything physical in the observable universe?
   
   
7. Later in the episode we understand why Mom wanted the can. Replicated anchovy oil could be used to fuel robots, which would bankrupt MomCorp. Mom says there are 10 billion robots and that each robot needs an oil change every 3000 miles. What does it mean for a robot to log 3000 miles? Estimate the time it would take using the typical step counts logged by an average adult.
   
   
8. Next, calculate the number of potential oil changes per year and estimate the total yearly revenue based on current oil prices.
   
   
9. Mom says: "A single drop of the anchovies’ natural oil would lubricate ten robots permanently." Estimate how many robots would be removed from Mom's revenue stream from just one can of anchovies.
   
   
10. Mom is worried that the oil-making gene might be placed in living hosts. If each living host could produce the equivalent oil of one anchovy, how many hosts would be necessary to remove all 10 billion robots from the revenue stream?

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