Question

A farmer wanted to control wind erosion across a 1200 foot field. The wind blows predominately in that direction (i.e., across the 1200 foot field). She decided to plant a windbreak that would be 20 ft tall at maturity. How many windbreaks should she plant, assuming that the windbreaks are perpendicular to the predominate wind direction? Recall from the Lecture 7 slides that the downwind area protected by a tree is 20 times greater than the height of the tree.

Group of answer choices

6

15

10

3​

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

The downwind area protected by a tree is 20 times greater than the height of the tree. Therefore, a windbreak that is 20 ft tall at maturity would protect an area of 20 x 20 = 400 ft downwind.

To cover a 1200 ft field, the farmer would need to divide it into sections of 400 ft and plant a windbreak at the end of each section. This would require a total of 1200/400 = 3 windbreaks.

Therefore, the farmer should plant 3 windbreaks to control wind erosion across her 1200 foot field. The answer is option D.