Fermi Method Organizer
Name Erin Magill, Blue
1. Background Story:
How many sheep would it take to use their wool to make a blanket that covers the world, and what percentage of those sheep do we have? I chose this question because it is very large and complex, but solvable. I was thinking about things going around the world, and the most interesting one was a blanket. Then, to make it more complicated, I asked how many sheep that would take and how many of those are actually on the earth right now.
2. Ask Yourself This:
What is the surface area of the Earth?
How many sheep are there on Earth?
How much wool is on an average sheep?
What is the density of wool?
What is the average thickness of a blanket?
3. Helpful Hints:
The surface area of the Earth is 150,000,000 sq. km, or 1,500,000,000,000,000,000 sq centimeters. That’s 1.5*1018.
There are 1,200,000 sheep on Earth
There’s 3000 grams of wool on each sheep.
Wool is 1.314 grams per cubic centimeter.
The blanket is 2 millimeters thick.
Sources- wikianswers.com
hypertextbook.com
sheep101.info
I measured blankets around my house, and decided that most of them were about two millimeters or 0.2 centimeters thick.
3. Helpful Hints:
The surface area of the Earth is 150,000,000 sq. km, or 1,500,000,000,000,000,000 sq centimeters. That’s 1.5*1018.
There are 1,200,000 sheep on Earth
There’s 3000 grams of wool on each sheep.
Wool is 1.314 grams per cubic centimeter.
The blanket is 2 millimeters thick.
Sources- wikianswers.com
hypertextbook.com
sheep101.info
I measured blankets around my house, and decided that most of them were about two millimeters or 0.2 centimeters thick.
4. Construct a Formula:
1sheep * 1.314g * 0.2 cm * 1.5*1017 cm2 = sheep
3000 g 1 cm3 1 blanket 1 earth 3000 earth blankets
sheep sheep
3000 earth blankets divided by 3000= 1 earth blanket
sheep sheep
earth right now divided by earth blanket = percentage of sheep needed that we have
I need to multiply 1 sheep per 3000 grams by 1.314 grams per 1 cm3 by 0.2 centimeters per blanket by 1.5*1017 cm2 per earth. That gives me answer for 3000 blankets, so then I divide the whole thing by 3000 to simplify it. Then I find the percentage of sheep necessary to make the earth blanket that we have right now by dividing the sheep we have by the sheep we need. The answer will be that percentage.
5. Messy Math:
1sheep * 1.314g *0.2 cm *1.5*1018 = 3.942*10 17 sheep
3000 g 1 cm3 1 blanket 1 earth 3000 earth blankets
Solving the formula
1sheep*1.314g*0.2cm=0.2628 wool times width of blanket
0.2628 wool times width of blanket*(1.5*10 18)area of earth
Multiplying those scientific notations
0.2628*1.5=0.3942
3.942*1017 sheep per 3000 earth blankets
Simplifying for 1 earth blanket
3000 blankets=3*103 blankets (3.942*1017)divided by(3*103)blankets
3.942 divided by 3=1.314 17-3=14
1.314*1014 sheep per 1 earth blanket
Finding the percentage we have right now
(1.2*105) divided by (1.314*1014)
1.2 divided by 1.314=0.913242 5-14=(-9)
9.13242*10-10=.000000000913242=0.0000000913242% of the sheep necessary to make a wool blanket that covers the world are alive right now
6. Answer: This is where you can simplify your answer (round it off!) and provide context for your answer (put it into terms that someone else could understand).
About 0.00000009% of the sheep that are necessary to make a blanket that covers the earth are alive right now. That’s 9 quintillionth percent, or 9 septillionths, which is so tiny it’s hard to even think about. The number of sheep we have right now comes nowhere close to the number necessary, even though the blanket is only 2 millimeters thick.
This is the rubric that will be used to assess your Fermi work. Please review it before you begin your research.
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