How many some flakes fall in Vermont each year

1.  Background Story:  My question is how many snowflakes fall each year in Vermont. I chose this because in Vermont it snows a lot in the winter, so there has to be a lot of snow flakes in all the snow we get. So I wondered just how many snowflakes we actually get in one winter. I knew it would be a lot so I chose it because it was going to be a challenge.



2.  Ask Yourself This:  How many snow flakes are in one cubic foot?

Square footage of Vermont?

What's the average snow fall in feet each year?



3.  Helpful Hints:
.

Vermont covers 9,615 square miles

    There are 27,878,400 square feet in one square mile
 
    There are 268,050,816,000 square ft in Vermont
 
     Roughly 80 inches of snow fall each year

     80 inches is just under 7 ft
                       
b.  estimation
About 31,000 snowflakes are in one cubic foot.



4.  Construct a Formula:

I multiplied how many square miles in Vermont by how many square feet in a square mile to get how many square feet in Vermont. Then I multiplied how many square feet in Vermont by how many snowflakes are in one cubic foot by how many feet of snow vermont gets on average.


5.  Messy Math:

     268,050,816,000
                       31,000  =  58,167,026,854,000,000 snowflakes in Vermont each year  
9.6x10^2 square miles in vt x 2.7x10^6 square feet in 1 square mile = 2.8x10^10 square feet in vermont

 2.8x10^10 square feet in Vermont x 3.1x10^3 number of snowflakes in 1 cubic foot x 7 feet of snow each year = 5.8x10^16 number of snowflakes fall in Vermont each year

N(square feet in Vermont)
X(snowflakes/cubic foot)
S(Snow fall in Vermont each year in feet)
P(snowflakes that fall in Vermont each year)

P=NXS

58,167,000,000,000,000
5.8167000000000000
the decimal point moved 16 places
5.8x10^16




6.  Answer:
5.8x10^16 snowflakes fall each year in Vermont
5.8x10^16 snowflakes fall each year in vermont. Thats about 650,000 times the number of people on earth.