I sent this to Joe before I realized his message went to the whole list. Here's my reply. --Bruce ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 13:45:17 -0600 From: Bruce Raup <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Joseph B. Reid <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [USMA:13102] Re: Journalists cannot compute On 2001-05-29 15:34 -0400, Joseph B. Reid wrote: > Bruce Raup wrote in USMA 13102 > > >"A fire has burned a square-shaped area that measures 5800 acres. How > >long is one side of the square? (Or, how long would it take to walk the > >length of one side of the square?)" > > > >(The answer is that it's a 3 mi by 3 mi square, or 4.8 km by 4.8 km.) > > > Not quite. 3 x 3 x 640 = 5760 I realized the conversion wasn't exact. But 3.01 rounds to 3, and I used only one significant figure. Even "3.0" would be correct. I chose 5800, rather than 5760, because it is a "rounder" number. I was trying to come up with an example that would involve nice round numbers both for the number of acres and side dimension. If I used 5760, someone might think it's a hard problem just because it's not a round number. In news reports about fires, you hear numbers like 5800, but you don't typically hear numbers like 5760. BTW, I always enjoy your postings to the list. Cheers, Bruce -- Bruce Raup National Snow and Ice Data Center Phone: 303-492-8814 University of Colorado, 449 UCB Fax: 303-492-2468 Boulder, CO 80309-0449 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
