Real-Life Math -- Solution
The first thing you need to do is figure out the volume of the tank.
Multiply
the dimensions of the tank:
10 m wide x 12.5 m wide x 5.3 m deep =
volume
10 m x 12.5 m x 5.3 m = 662.5 cubic meters
Next
you have to figure out how many liters are in the tank.
Since there are
1,000 liters per cubic meter, multiply the volume of the tank by 1,000.
cubic
meters x 1,000 liters per cubic meter = total liters
662.5 cm x 1,000
L = 662,500 liters
Now figure out how many seconds it
will take to fill the tank. Divide the number of liters in the tank by the
number of liters per second it takes the water to flow through the pipe.
662,500
liters / 5 seconds = 132,500 seconds
Now you have to
convert seconds to minutes:
132,500 seconds / 60 seconds
in a minute = 2,208 minutes
And next convert minutes
to hours:
2,208 minutes / 60 minutes in an hour = 36.8
hours
It will take you 36.8 hours to fill the tank. Don't
forget that it will take the tiles 48 hours to dry. That adds up to 84.8 hours.
Convert
that to everyday language.
84.8 / 24 hours in a day =
just over 3.5 days
Technically, the maintenance people
can come test the pumps in just over 3.5 days. Yet a half-day is 12 hours,
and you know the crew doesn't work around the clock. So be sure to round that
up to four days. In other words, if it's Monday at 9 a.m., 3.5 days would
be Thursday at 9 p.m. The crew won't be working then! So tell them to come
in on Friday morning.
"Being good at math is helpful with everything,
and it's certainly good for trades like plumbing," says plumbing instructor
Bill Evans. "The better you are at math, the better you can do
things like grading pipe and calculating where graded pipe are going to go
through walls, and working with invert elevations and stuff like that. So
it is fairly mathematical in nature."