Final answer:
It will take 12 minutes to completely drain a 480-gallon fish tank with a pump that operates at a rate of 40 gallons per minute.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question involves a scenario where a student has a 480 gallon fish tank that they wish to completely drain. They have a pump that can drain water at a consistent rate of 40 gallons per minute. To determine how long it will take to drain the tank completely, we apply a simple division.
To find the time taken to drain the tank, we divide the total volume of the tank by the rate at which the pump drains the water. That is:
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- Total volume of the tank = 480 gallons
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- Rate of the pump = 40 gallons/minute
Time to drain = Total volume / Rate of pump
Time to drain = 480 gallons / 40 gallons per minute = 12 minutes. Therefore, it will take 12 minutes to completely drain the 480-gallon fish tank with the pump.