Fermi Method Organizer

Name Posy LaBombard

This organizer will be used as a “notes” version (much like an outline) for your writing.  You will use these notes to create a 1st draft of your Fermi Blog.  

I'm sure sometime or another you've seen, eaten, or caught a crayfish. They're small, fast crustaceans that actively populate the U.S. Over the summer, I caught crayfish with some friends. This inspired my question: If we were to take all of America's USA flag poles, how many crayfish would it take to fill them?

How many crayfish does it take to fill up all of the U.S.'s flagpoles?

How many flag poles are there in the U.S.?- average 

What is the volume of the average crayfish?

What is the volume of the average flag pole?

How many schools in U.S.?

How many YMCA camps in US?

Average flagpole is 20 ft high     

Total number of public schools = 98706        (http://www.edreform.com/2012/04/k-12-facts/)

Standard school flagpole 15-60ft high. (15 + 60) / 2= 37.5 ft > 1,143 cm    http://www.ask.com/question/what-is-the-average-height-of-a-school-flag-pole

There are 2686 YMCA camps in the U.S.  

estimated flagpole radius = 3.75 cm

estimated crayfish volume = 4.71 cm^3

volume of flagpole = 50,292 cm^3

Estimate that a crayfish is 6cm high and has a width of .5 cm. 

v=pi*r^2 h 

.5^2 cm = .25cm

3.14*.25cm*6cm= 4.71 cm^3

Estimated volume of crayfish: 4.71 cm^3

And to estimate the number of flagpoles in the U.S.

There are 98706 public schools in America. 1 flagpole/school=98706 flagpoles

there are 2686 YMCA camps. 1 flagpole/YMCA camp=2686 flagpoles

U.S. population= 316,800,000

assuming 1 in 7 people have a flag in their home, we would go 

316,800,000*.14= 44352000

1/7 = .14

98706 + 2686 + 44352000 = 44453392 flagpoles in america

f / c = x

f = volume of flagpole (cm^3)

c = volume of crayfish (cm^3)

x = crayfish/flagpole 

50,292/4.71= 4700.186916→ 4700.2 crayfish/flagpole

5.0300/4.70

5.03x10^4 flagpoles/4.7x10^2 crayfish= 1.1x10^2crayfish/flagpole

In order to find the number of crayfish per flagpole, we have to divide the volume of the flagpole by the volume of the crayfish. 

But that’s not the question we’re trying to answer:

We now need to multiply the number of crayfish/flagpole times the number of flagpoles in the U.S. This will tell us our answer. 

r * n = z

r = crayfish/flagpole 

n = number of flagpoles in U.S.

z = number of crayfish it takes to fill up all of U.S.’s flagpoles. 

4700.2 * 44453392 = 208,939,833,078

converting feet to cm

37.5 ft  (30.48cm/1 ft) = 1143 cm- height of flagpole

to find the volume of the flagpole, (v = pi r^2 h)  we go 

3.14 (3.75^2ft) 1143cm = 50292 cm^3 → volume of average flagpole 

r * n = z

r = crayfish/flagpole 

n = number of flagpoles in U.S.

z = number of crayfish it takes to fill up all of U.S.’s flagpoles. 

4700.2 crayfish/flagpole * 44453392 total flagpoles in U.S.= 208,939,833,078 crayfish fill up all of America’s flagpoles. 

We’ll round that to 209000000000

2.09*10^11 crayfish fill up all of America’s USA flagpoles. 

It would take about 209,000,000,000 crayfish to fill up all of America’s USA flagpoles. 

It would take 209 billion crayfish to fill up all of America’s USA flagpoles. 

I estimated the volume of a flagpole. I estimated the volume of a crayfish. I divided the volume of the flagpole by the volume of the crayfish. I estimated the number of flagpoles in America. I multiplied the number of crayfish/flagpole by the number of flagpoles in the USA and got my answer. To put that into perspective, it cost NASA about $209 billion to launch/prepare its space shuttle.