This might be the weirdest robot we’ve seen yet. Tomatan is a tomato-tossing robot for marathon runners. A marathon is 26 miles long, and it’s really hard to run that far. When the runner squeezes one of Tomatan’s feet, Tomatan grabs a tomato out of its own backpack, swings it overhead and holds it to the runner’s mouth. The runner can just keep running while munching! You probably never thought you could have a backpack robot — but you also probably never thought you’d want to eat tomatoes while running. Now you can do both.
Wee ones: What shape is a tomato?
Little kids: If Tomatan could feed you 2 tomatoes and then 5 bananas, how many pieces of food would he hand you? Bonus: If you want to eat 11 cherry tomatoes and so far Tomatan has given you 6 cherry tomatoes, how many more should Tomatan give you?
Big kids: If you run 26 miles and eat a tomato every 3 miles, can you eat all 10 tomatoes before you finish the race? Bonus: If you eat 2 tomatoes during each and every mile of a 26-mile long marathon, how many do you chug down in total?
Answers:
Wee ones: It looks like a circle from the side, and it’s also a sphere (a ball)…or if you want to get fancy, a spheroid (a squashed sphere, since most tomatoes aren’t perfect).
Little kids: 7 pieces. Bonus: 5 more cherry tomatoes.
Big kids: No: even if you eat one at the start (0 miles), you’ll have had 2 tomatoes after 3 miles, 3 after 6 miles, and so on, giving you only 9 by 24 miles. Bonus: 52 tomatoes.
