Nathan's Annual Eating Contest

July 4th is coming and contestants are in training for the annual Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest.

Below is a partial list of each year's winners.

1. What do you notice and wonder about this list of winners below?

year men women 2020 75 48.5 2019 Joey Chestnut 71 Miki Sudo 31 2018 Joey Chestnut 74 Miki Sudo 37 2017 Joey Chestnut 72 Miki Sudo 41 2016 Joey Chestnut 70 Miki Sudo 38 2015 Matthew Stone 62 Miki Sudo 38 2014 Joey Chestnut 61 Miki Sudo 34 2013 Joey Chestnut 69 36.75 2012 Joey Chestnut 68 Sonya Thomas 45 2011 Joey Chestnut 62 Sonya Thomas 40 2010 Joey Chestnut 54 Sonya Thomas 36 2009 Joey Chestnut 68 Sonya Thomas 41 2008 Joey Chestnut 59 Sonya Thomas 34 2007 Joey Chestnut 66 Sonya Thomas 39 2006 53.75 Sonya Thomas 37 2005 Takeru Kobayashi 49 Sonya Thomas 37 2004 Takeru Kobayashi 53.5 Sonya Thomas 32 2003 Takeru Kobayashi 44.5 Sonya Thomas 25 2002 Takeru Kobayashi 50 2001 Takeru Kobayashi 50 2000 Takeru Kobayashi 25.125 1999 Steve Keiner 20.25 1998 Hirofumi Nakajima 19 1997 Hirofumi Nakajima 24.5 1996 Ed Krachie 22.25 1995 Ed Krachie 19.5

1979 Thomas Stash 19 1978 Manel Hollenback 10 1974 Roberto Muriel 10 1972 Jason Schechter 14

According to Wikipedia, the time limit on this contest has changed through the years from as little as 3.5 minutes to 12 minutes. Since 2008 the time limit has been 10 minutes.

2. Looking at the number of hot dogs eaten in any year, do you think that the amount of time allocated for this contest was less or more before 2008. Please explain.

! 3. The 1972 contest lasted for 3 " minutes and Jason Schecter managed to consume 14 hot dogs in that time. How does his eating rate per minute compare with Joey Chestnut's 75 dogs in 10 minutes? Please show your figuring.

4. Can you imagine any reasons for this discrepancy in eating rates?

Recently, Dr. James Smoliga, a veterinarian and exercise scientist from North Carolina, calculated that the greatest number of hot dogs a person could eat in 10 minutes was 83.

5. What do you guess, using mathematics, that the winners will have eaten this year?

Sources: https://nathansfamous.com/hot-dog-eating-contest/hall-of-fame/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/science/hotdog-eating-contests.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan%27s_Hot_Dog_Eating_Contest

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