1. Background Story:
How many pencils do you think it would take to cover the sun? A million, 2 million, a billion? I chose this question because it seemed like it would be interesting and challenging to figure out. I do not think there is anyway to estimate the answer; that is why I think it will be so interesting.
2. Ask Yourself This:
1. What is the surface area of the sun in square miles?
2. What is the surface area of a standard, unsharpened, # 2 pencil?
3. How many pencils does it take to cover a square foot?
4. How many square feet are in a square mile?
3. Helpful Hints:
A. 1. According to the NASA website, the surface of the sun is 2,347,017,636,988 square miles. Another way to list it is 6.07877x10 ^2 sq kilometers.
2. I measured the width of a pencil to be .7 centimeters.
3. I measured the length of a pencil to be 18.7 centimeters.
4. 2.788x10^7 square feet are in a square mile. (Source: Google unit converter)
5.1 sq. foot = 929 cm. sq. (Source: Google unit converter)
B. I measured a standard pencil with a metric ruler. Then I multiplied the width (.7 cm) by the length (18.7cm) to get the surface area of a pencil.
4. Construct a Formula:
pencils X feet sq. X miles sq. = pencils feet sq. miles sq. sun. sun
5. Messy Math:
I measured a standard pencil with a metric ruler. I will multiply the width (.7 cm) by the length (18.7cm) to get the surface area of a pencil.
surface area of a pencil is .7cm. x 19 cm. = 13.3cm sq.
1 sq. foot = 929 cm. sq.
929 cm. sq. / 13.3 = 70 pencils in 1 sq. foot
27,878,400 sq ft per square mile
70 pencils x 27,878,400 sq ft. = 1.95x10^9 pencils per square mile
1.95x10^9 pencils per square mile X 2.35x10^10 surface area of sun= 4.6x10^19pencils to cover the sun
6. Answer:
It would take 4.6x10^19 pencils to cover the sun. (that’s a TON of pencils!!!!!!!)
ps not the weight the expression
that aint true
ReplyDeleteThat's a little more than a ton.
ReplyDelete