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Math,

No Snow Required

A city in Europe turned a garbage plant into a fun attraction

By By Jeanette Ferrara and Jacqueline Adams
From the February 2021 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will convert metric measurements of length using the dimensions of attractions at a snowless ski slope.

Lexile: 870L; 720L
Focus Area: Measurement and Data,
Standards
  • MATHEMATICAL PRACTICES: MP2, MP5, MP6 CCSS: 5.MD.A.1 TEKS: 5.7

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Lexile® measure

  • 870L
  • 720L

Niels Quist/Alamy Stock Photo

In Copenhagen, Denmark, a power plant also functions as a snowless ski slope!

People looking for fun in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark, can head to a new attraction known as CopenHill. There, they can ski or snowboard down a special snowless slope. 

The slope is covered in soil and grass. A layer of plastic bristles coated in an oily substance allows skiers to glide over the slope as if it were covered in snow. Visitors can also explore hiking trails or scale a 20-story climbing wall. It’s the tallest ever built on the side of a building!

There’s a new attraction in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark. It’s known as CopenHill. People looking for fun can go there to ski or snowboard down a special snowless slope.

The slope is covered in soil and grass. It has a layer of plastic bristles. The bristles are coated in an oily substance. The substance allows skiers to glide over the slope as if it were covered in snow. Visitors can also explore hiking trails. They can scale a climbing wall that’s 20 stories tall. It’s the tallest climbing wall ever built on the side of a building!

Gonzales Photo/Alamy Stock Phot

But there’s more to this artificial mountain than fun and games. Beneath the slope is a waste-to-energy plant. The facility burns the city’s garbage to make electricity and heat. Every year, the plant burns about 400,000 tons of trash, powering and heating thousands of homes in the process. The plant also keeps trash out of landfills. 

But this artificial mountain is more than just fun and games. Beneath the slope is a waste-to-energy plant. The facility burns the city’s garbage to make electricity and heat. The plant burns about 400,000 tons of trash every year. It powers and heats thousands of homes in the process. The plant also helps keep trash out of landfills.

CopenHill Waste-to-Energy Plant
Watch a video about skiing down a snowless, man-made hill.

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

CopenHill’s ski slope is made of a steel frame covered with concrete slabs. The slabs contain steel mesh and hollow spaces. This makes them stronger and lighter than regular concrete. That allows the structure to hold the weight of soil, plants, and as many as 1,500 visitors at once!

Peter Madsen Nordestgaard is an engineer who helped build the facility. He hopes other cities will build similar multiuse structures. “I hope this will be a milestone,” he says.

CopenHill’s ski slope is made of a steel frame covered with concrete slabs. The slabs contain steel mesh and hollow spaces. These materials make the slabs stronger and lighter than regular concrete. The extra strength allows the structure to hold the weight of soil and plants. It also allows as many as 1,500 visitors to stand on it at once!

Peter Madsen Nordestgaard is an engineer. He helped build the facility. He hopes other cities will build similar multiuse structures. “I hope this will be a milestone,” he says.

Math Talk

What would be a financial, or money-related, benefit of creating multiuse buildings?

Math Talk

What would be a financial, or money-related, benefit of creating multiuse buildings?

Converting Measurement Units
Watch a math helper video about how to convert between units of measurement using a real-world example.

Measurement Conversions

What to Do

Unlike the U.S., many countries use the metric system of measurement. This is a decimal-based system with units related by multiples of 10. To convert between units, you multiply or divide by a power of 10. Multiply to convert from larger to smaller units. Divide to convert from smaller to larger units.

Example

The highest point of CopenHill’s climbing wall is about 85 meters (m). That’s nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty! What is that height in hectometers (hm)? 

There are 100 meters in a hectometer. Divide to convert the smaller unit into the larger unit.

So 85 m is equal to 0.85 hm.

Measurement Conversions

What to Do

Unlike the U.S., many countries use the metric system of measurement. This is a decimal-based system with units related by multiples of 10. To convert between units, you multiply or divide by a power of 10. Multiply to convert from larger to smaller units. Divide to convert from smaller to larger units.

Example

The highest point of CopenHill’s climbing wall is about 85 meters (m). That’s nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty! What is that height in hectometers (hm)? 

There are 100 meters in a hectometer. Divide to convert the smaller unit into the larger unit.

So 85 m is equal to 0.85 hm.

Now You Try It

Use what you know about measurement conversions to answer the questions.

Use what you know about measurement conversions to answer the questions.

The ski slope at CopenHill is 500 meters long. Complete the table to determine that length in centimeters.

The ski slope at CopenHill is 500 meters long. Complete the table to determine that length in centimeters.

The climbing wall is 10 meters wide. Find its width in decimeters.

The climbing wall is 10 meters wide. Find its width in decimeters.

Visitors can run, hike, or climb to the top of  CopenHill. The shortest path is 45,000 centimeters long. What is that distance in meters?

Visitors can run, hike, or climb to the top of  CopenHill. The shortest path is 45,000 centimeters long. What is that distance in meters?

CopenHill offers a training facility 0.078 km up the hill. How many decameters is that? 

CopenHill offers a training facility 0.078 km up the hill. How many decameters is that? 

Continue Your Learning

  • Watch the video “CopenHill Waste-to-Energy Plant” above. What other activities or attractions would you add to CopenHill that are waste-friendly? Create a poster about your new attraction and write at least 3 number facts about it.
  • What would your ultimate ski slope be like? Draw a diagram of the ski slope you would want to create. Include at least 4 metric measurements in your drawing, such as how many meters tall the slope is or how many kilometers you must walk to reach the top. Convert each measurement on your diagram into two other metric units.

Continue Your Learning

  • Watch the video “CopenHill Waste-to-Energy Plant” above. What other activities or attractions would you add to CopenHill that are waste-friendly? Create a poster about your new attraction and write at least 3 number facts about it.
  • What would your ultimate ski slope be like? Draw a diagram of the ski slope you would want to create. Include at least 4 metric measurements in your drawing, such as how many meters tall the slope is or how many kilometers you must walk to reach the top. Convert each measurement on your diagram into two other metric units.
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