Question

What is the wettest place on Earth? Mount Waialeale on the Hawaiian island of Kauai is certainly one of them. This mountain gets an average annual rainfall of 11.684 meters. In 1982, the area received a record rainfall of 16.916 meters.

Suppose Mount Waialeale received 2.219 meters more rain this year than its average annual rainfall. Estimate how much rain Mount Waialeale received this year.
Calculate the estimated rainfall for this year.
A) 9.465 meters
B) 13.903 meters
C) 18.135 meters
D) 14.903 meters

Answer 1

The estimated rainfall at Mount Waialeale this year would be the sum of the average annual rainfall (11.684 meters) and the increase this year (2.219 meters), resulting in 13.903 meters.

Step-by-step explanation:

The rainfall on Mount Waialeale provides an excellent example of how to apply simple addition in order to estimate an amount based on an average and an increase. The student is given that Mount Waialeale's average annual rainfall is 11.684 meters, and this year it's received 2.219 meters more than this average. To estimate the total rainfall for the year, one simply needs to compute the sum of these two numbers.

Adding the average annual rainfall (11.684 meters) to the additional rainfall this year (2.219 meters) gives us:

11.684 meters + 2.219 meters = 13.903 meters.

Therefore, the estimated rainfall this year at Mount Waialeale is 13.903 meters, which corresponds to option B).