Paperclip And A Pen


How Long Did Horton Search?

I'm reading a lot of childrens books these days. A favorite in my house is "Horton Hears a Who" by Dr. Seuss. In one section, Horton is searching for a specific clover in a giant field of clovers. He finally finds the one he's looking for "on the three millionth flower." So I wondered, how long did Horton search?

The story actually gives us enough information. We know when the clover landed in the field.

And at 6:56 the next morning he did it.
It sure was a terrible place that he hid it.
He let that small clover drop somewhere inside
Of a great patch of clovers a hundred miles wide!

We're also told how many flowers he'd picked by noon.

And by noon poor old Horton, more dead than alive,
Had picked, searched, and piled up, nine thousand and five.

We also know how many flowers he searched.

Till he found them at last! On the three millionth flower!

Given all this, is we know Horton searched 9004 clovers in 304 minutes. Assuming he maintained a steady pace we find Horton searched for:

3,000,000  flowers * 304  minutes 9,004  flowers 101,288  minutes

That's 1,688 hours or just over 70 full days. Assuming he searched for only 16 hours a day poor old Horton would've searched for over 105 days! Horton was clearly comitted to finding his little friends.

However, we are given one additional detail in the story. Once Horton finally finds the clover the sour kangaroo addresses him.

For two days now youve run wild and insisted
on talking to persons who've never existed

Since the clover is lost the morning after Horton first discovered the Whos, he must have only spent a single day searching. So, perhaps 3,000,000 was an exageration of how many flowers he actually searched. What's a more likely count then? Assuming he searched anywhere from 12-16 hours we get a range of 21,325-28,433 flowers. Still a very strong commitment to the Whos.