Question

In May 1998, forest fires in southern Mexico and Guatemala spread smoke all the way to Austin. Those fires consumed forest land at a rate of 24300 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.

Answer 1

9657 square meters of forest are burned a minute

Explanation:

The first step is to find how many acres of forest are burned down every minute. The ratio is given in acres a week, so we first need to find how many minutes are there in a week.

Step 1: Number of minutes in a week

Each day has 24 hours, of 60 minutes. So in each day there are 1440 minutes.

A week has 7 days, so in a week there are 1440*7 = 10080 minutes.

Step 2: Number of acres consumed a minute

Those fires consumed forest land at a rate of 24300 acres/week. From step 1, we have that in a week there are 10080 minutes. So, in 10080 minutes 24300 acres are consumed. With a simple direct rule of three, we find how many acres are burned every minute

1 minute - x acres

10080 minutes - 24300 acres

x = 24300/10080

x = 2.41 acres a minute

2.41 acres are consumed a minute.

Step 3: Conversion of units

I am going to convert from m to cm to inches to yard to acres.

1m is 100cm, so:

100 cm - 1 m

2.54 cm - x m

x = 0.0254 m

In one inch there are 2.54cm = 0.0254 m

In one yard there are 36 inches, so in one yard there are 36*0.0254 = 0.91m.

so the rectangle of which an acre is an area equivalent has the following dimensions.

width = 60.5yd = 60.5*(0.91)m = 55.05m

length = 80yd = 80*0.91m = 72.8m

The area of a rectange of the product between width and length, so an acre is 55.05*72.8 = 4007
`m^(2)`.

2.41 acres of forest are burned a minute, so 2.41*4007 = 9657 square meters of forest are burned a minute.