According to the Smarties (Canadian, not U.S.) package, “Canadians eat enough Smarties each year to circle the Earth 350 times.” That got a 6th grade math teacher in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada thinking and she had her class do some math.

Then they took the size of a single Smartie and worked out how many it would take to form a 40,000-kilometre necklace around the planet. To make the company’s claim true, each Smartie would have to be bigger. “Three and a half metres,” (about 11.5 feet) says student Kaylie Rankin. “It’s about the size of our chalkboard. I don’t know if I’d be able to eat it.”
[Read more]

After writing three letters to Nestle, the company has agreed to change the packaging next year.

• Original article at CBC News
• Comparison of U.S. vs U.K. Smarties
• U.S. Smarties website
• Canadian Smarties webpage

tags: candy smarties chocolate math canada teacher students