Final answer:
To find out how many Lake Ontarios it would take to fill the Atlantic Ocean, divide the volume of the Atlantic Ocean (2 x 10^9 gallons) by the volume of Lake Ontario (8 trillion gallons), resulting in 4,000 Lake Ontarios (answer a)).
Step-by-step explanation:
The student's question pertains to the comparison of the volume of water in Lake Ontario to that of the Atlantic Ocean to determine how many times Lake Ontario's volume of water would fit into the Atlantic Ocean. We're given that the Atlantic Ocean contains approximately 2 x 109 gallons of water, and that Lake Ontario has about 8,000,000,000,000 gallons of water. To find out how many Lake Ontarios it would take to fill the Atlantic Ocean, we need to divide the volume of the Atlantic Ocean by the volume of Lake Ontario.
Dividing 2 x 109 gallons by 8,000,000,000,000 gallons gives us 0.00025, which means that it would take 4,000 Lake Ontarios to fill the Atlantic Ocean in terms of gallons of water. Therefore, the correct answer is a) 4,000 Lake Ontarios.
The Great Lakes and the oceans represent our planet's largest surface water resources, with the Great Lakes holding 21% of the world's surface freshwater. Freshwater is crucial for human consumption, yet it represents a small fraction of the total water on Earth, with the majority being saltwater in the oceans or locked away in ice sheets and glaciers. This underscores the importance of responsibly managing and conserving our water resources.