Real-Life Math -- Solution
Pick up the phone and tell the company the slash burn can go ahead!
The ventilation index will be high enough for them. Here's why:
Part
A
Subtract the station elevation from the mixing
height:
1,410 - 346 = 1,064 meters
Part B
Now
you have to convert the meters into feet:
1,064 x 3.28 = 3,489.92
Part
C
Converting the mean winds into yards and then to miles:
3,489.92
x 35 x 0.621 x 1,760 = 133,502,003.71 / 2,000 = 66,751 foot knots
Part
D
And then figure out the ventilation index:
35 x 3,489
= 122,115 foot knots
This is well above the 22,000
foot knots point the forestry company needed. They light up the slash piles
and you can see from your windows the smoke is rising and clearing the valley
just as you predicted.
You'll have to be comfortable with math to be
a meteorologist.
"Many meteorologists are involved in research projects
in which quantitative information is needed, such as analysis of long records
of observations to identify patterns of variation," says James R. Holton,
chairman of the atmospheric sciences department at the University of Washington.