Problem 1.

3 [Difficulty: 1]

1.5 Make a guess at the order of magnitude of the mass (e.g., 0.01,
0.1, 1.0, 10, 100, or 1000 kg) of standard air that is in a room
3 m by 3m by 2.4 m, and then compute this mass in lbm and kg to
see how close your estimate was.

Given: Dimensions of a room.

Find: Mass of air.

Solution:

p
Basic equation: ρ=
R air ⋅ T

ft ⋅ lbf
Given or available data p = 14.7 psi T = (59 + 460)R R air = 53.33 ⋅
lbm ⋅ R

J
P = 101.3 kPa T = (15 + 273) K R = 286.9
air kg ⋅ K
V = 10 ⋅ ft × 10 ⋅ ft × 8 ⋅ ft V = 800 ⋅ ft 3
V = 3 m × 3 m × 2.4m = 21.6 m3

p lbm kg
Then ρ= ρ = 0.076 ρ = 1.23
R air ⋅ T ft 3 m3

M = ρ⋅V M = 61.2 lbm M = 26.6 kg