Eikev- An activity in comparisons and estimated measures

Last year for Parshat Eikev, I wrote about Rashi and Tanchuma's commentaries regarding the size and weight of the stone tablets that Moshe brought down with the 10 commandments inscribed on them. Their commentaries explained that despite there being differences between the two tablets, the size and weights of the two tablets were actually identical.

Thoughts on a follow-up activity:

• Last week in Parshat Va'etchanan (Devarim 5:6-18) we read the 10 commandments. These commandments were divided into the first 5, which are between man and Hashem and inscribed on the first tablet, and the second 5, which are between man and man and inscribed on the second tablet.
• If you compare, side by side, the wording, number of letters, number of characters, etc. between the two subsets of commandments, what are the actual differences between them? Which has more words, letters, characters, etc. and which has fewer? 
• Think about how you might compare the inscriptions proportionally to each other? 
• Is there a way to calculate- if I start with two 25 lb. tablets, and then inscribe in each one, is there a way to estimate how much each one should have weighed at the end? 
• Could you estimate surface area if you take a standard font and printed onto a sheet of paper- what's the ratio of print to total surface area for each tablet? What might the proportional volume differences be? What about weight differences? 
• There is a discussion in Gemara Bava Batra 14a wherein it is determined that the size of each tablet was 6 tefachim (handbreadths) high, 6 tefachim wide, and 3 tefachim deep. 
• Based on these measurements, what might the original volume of each tablet have been?
• Based on these measurements, what might the original weight of each tablet have been?
• Using estimated proportionally carved out sections from each tablet, what would one have assumed the new volumes/weights of each tablet to have been after the inscription of the commandments?
• Older students can also work through the measurement calculations from the source in Bava Batra related to the ark (where the tablets were kept) and the tablets, to see how the measurements were determined.