Question

A farmer has rights to pump 1,500 gallons of water a minute from a river that runs through his property. He uses 0.9

million gallons of water a day to irrigate his crops. What is the fewest number of hours it takes him to pump the water
he needs in a day?

Answer 1

The rate at which he pumps water is
`(1500gal)/(min)`.
To find the number of hours it takes to pump 0.9 million gallons, we can set a proportion.

`(1500gal)/(min) = (0.9*100000)/(x) \\ \\ 1500x = 0.9*1000000 \\ x = 900000/1500 = 600min`.
The question asks for the time in hours, so convert 600 min to hours. One hour is 60 min.

`600min* (hr)/(60min) = 10hr`