How Many Manatees are Sleeping Right now?


How many manatees are sleeping right now? I bet you’re wondering why did I choose this question? Well after I read about Fermi the man himself and what kinds of questions he asked and answered I knew it couldn’t be an ordinary question it had to use estimations, large numbers, small numbers and more than 3 steps. This was the very first question that popped in my head, as I wrote it down I started thinking about the process and what would I have to do to figure this out (probably a common question Fermi had to answer.) I narrowed it down to three questions that I could look up and that would start me in the right direction to solve this problem.

Q: How long do Manatees sleep per day, what is there sleeping pattern like?
A: Manatees sleep throughout the day and are awake throughout the night besides once in awhile when they take short naps.

Q: Where are Manatees located?
A: Manatees are located in Florida and Central America.

Q: What is the total population of Manatees?
A: 8,834 Manatees.

I had to estimate the total population of manatees because  there was no exact numbers they gave me ranges of numbers so I tried to pick the number in between.
Then is was time to put the numbers together and see what we would come out with.

-There are 8,834 manatees left in the world.
-On an estimation 10% of the manatees awake right now are napping.
-There is a hour time difference between FL. and Central America.
-Manatees are asleep all day and then wake up at night starting at 7:00 p.m.
-4,834 manatees in Flordia and 4,500 manatees left in Central America.

Out of the 4,834 manatees that are awake right now 10% are sleeping which means that you would have to divide 4,834 by 10 and you would come out with 483.

We know that all the manatees in Central America are sleeping because they are an hour behind in time so we would add 4,500 manatees + 483 manatees = 4,983 manatees sleeping right now.

Or written in scientific notation it would be 4.983 x 10^3.

After answering my problem I found out how much easier it actually is once you have all the information you need down so now I can answer that as 7:15 p.m. there are 4,983 manatees sleeping.