The second floor of Dr. Reed’s two-story house has dimensions 24feet by 12feet .
ID: 1408816 • Letter: T
Question
The second floor of Dr. Reed’s two-story house has dimensions 24feet by 12feet . He is planning to install a rain barrel on each of the four downspouts to collect the runoff and use the collected water to irrigate the plantings along his foundation. His plan is to use two 35-gallon trash cans for each of his rain barrels. The beds for the planting are about six feet wide, and extend across one long side and both short sides of the foundation. Answer the following questions using Fermi techniques.
Are eight 35-gallon barrels sufficient to handle the runoff from a severe summer thunderstorm?
Are eight 35-gallon barrels sufficient to provide one inch of irrigation water to the entire planting three times during a week when no rain falls?
Explanation / Answer
Here, The second floor of Dr. Reed’s two-story house has dimensions 24feet by 12feet .
=> Volume = 1728 ft3
His plan is to use two 35-gallon trash cans for each of his rain barrels
=> 2 X 4.67882 ft3 trash cans for each of his rain barrels .
=> Yes, eight 35-gallon barrels is sufficient to handle the runoff from a severe summer thunderstorm .
=> No , eight 35-gallon barrels are not sufficient to provide one inch of irrigation water to the entire planting three times during a week when no rain falls ,