PLEASE HELP ME SOLVE !!!!
InMay 1998, forest fires in southernMexico
and Guatemala spread smoke all the way to
Austin. Those fires consumed forest land at a
rate of 26900 acres/week.
On the average, how many square meters
of forest are burned down every minute? An
acre is an area equivalent to that of a rectangle
60.5 yd wide and 80 yd long, there are 36
inches in one yard, and there are 2.54 cm in
one inch.
Answer in units of m2/min
26900 ac/wk * wk/7day * day/1440min gives ac/min
ac/min * 48560ft^2 * (12in/ft)^2 * (2.54cm/in)^2 * (1m/100cm)^2 gives m^2/min
Just carry the units along. Remember that multiplying by 1 does not change anything. Use the units you want to get or cancel.
Oops -- an acre is 43560 ft^2
To solve this problem, we'll need to convert acres to square meters and then calculate the average number of square meters burned down every minute.
First, let's convert the given dimensions of an acre to square meters:
- 1 acre = 60.5 yards wide and 80 yards long.
- Since there are 36 inches in one yard, the width in inches is: 60.5 yards * 36 inches/yard = 2178 inches.
- Similarly, the length in inches is: 80 yards * 36 inches/yard = 2880 inches.
- Since there are 2.54 centimeters in one inch, the width in centimeters is: 2178 inches * 2.54 cm/inch = 5530.12 cm.
- The length in centimeters is: 2880 inches * 2.54 cm/inch = 7315.2 cm.
- Now we can calculate the area in square centimeters: Area = Width * Length = 5530.12 cm * 7315.2 cm = 40406583.0144 cm².
- Finally, converting to square meters: 1 cm² = 0.0001 m², so the area in square meters is: 40406583.0144 cm² * 0.0001 m²/cm² = 4040.65830144 m².
Now, let's calculate the average number of square meters burned down every minute:
- Given that the fires consumed forest land at a rate of 26900 acres per week, we need to convert this to the number of square meters burned down per minute.
- Since there are 7 days in a week and 24 hours in a day, there are 7 * 24 * 60 = 10080 minutes in a week.
- Therefore, the number of square meters burned down every minute is: 4040.65830144 m²/min = (26900 acres / week) / 10080 minutes/week.
- Plugging in the values, we get: (26900 acres / 10080 minutes/week) * 4040.65830144 m²/acre = 10.7584424134 m²/min.
So, on average, approximately 10.76 square meters of forest are burned down every minute.