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IM: 6.9.1: Fermi Problems (Lesson)

Last updated 11 months ago

3 questions

1.1: Ant Trek

1

Question 1

1.

The distance between Los Angeles and New York City is about 3,944 km.
An ant can run about 18 mm per second.
How long would it take an ant to run from Los Angeles to New York City?

1.2: Stacks and Stacks of Cereal Boxes

1

Question 2

2.

Imagine a warehouse that has a rectangular floor and that contains all of the boxes of breakfast cereal bought in the United States in one year.

If the warehouse is 10 feet tall, what could the side lengths of the floor be?

1.3: Covering the Washington Monument

1

Question 3

3.

Standard sizes for square tiles: side lengths of 1 inch, 6 inches, 8 inches, 1 foot, and feet.

Note that 55 feet is the height of the pyramid at the top, not the height of each triangular face. Students would need the Pythagorean Theorem to find the height of these faces, so either tell them it is close to 57.5 feet or they can use the 55 feet for their estimate. This does not have a significant impact on the area calculation, as the pyramid at the top does not account for most of the surface area.

How many tiles would it take to cover the Washington Monument?