Unit 2B Problem Solving with Units

In Unit 2A, we investigated the basic principles of unit analysis. Now, we are ready to apply these
principles to problem solving. We’ll begin by looking at a general procedure, then we we’ll extend
the ideas to units used for energy, density, and concentration, all of which are commonly
encountered in everyday life.

Putting Unit Analysis to Work

To major value of unit analysis is that it gives us a way to make to make sure that answers to
problems come out with the units that we expect. As we’ll see, in some cases, this approach can
help solve a problem that might otherwise seem difficult. In all cases, unit analysis offers a check
on our answers. The box below summarizes the basic procedure, which will become clearer as you
study the example that follow.

Unit Analysis in Problem Solving

Step1. Identify the units involved in the problem and the units that you expect for the answer.
Step 2. Use the given units and the expected answers units to help you find a strategy for solving
the problem. Be sure to perform all operation (such as multiplication or division) on both the
numbers and their associated units. Remember:

 You cannot add or subtract members with different units, but you can combine different
units through multiplication, division, or raising to powers.
 It is easier to keep track of units if you replace division with multiplication by the
s 1min
reciprocal. For example, instead of dividing by 60
min
, multiply by
60 s
.

Step 3. When you complete your calculations, make sure that your answer has the units you
expected. If it doesn’t then you’ve done something wrong.

EXAMPLE 1 Distance, Time, and Speed

A car travels 25 miles every half-hour. How fast is it going?
Solution
Step 1. The “how fast” suggests that the final answer should be a speed. Because the given units
are miles and hours, we expect a speed in miles per hour.
Step 2. Recalling that per means divided by, the fact that we are looking for a speed in miles per
hours tells us that we should divide the distance travelled by the time it takes:
1 2 mi
25 mi ÷
2
hr = 25 mi ×
1hr
= 50
hr
1 1hr 1
Notice that we interpreted hr as
3 2
. Then, instead of dividing by hr, we multiplied by the
2
2
reciprocal, which is .
1hr
Step 3. We have found that the car travels at a speed of 50 miles per hour. The answer has the
units we expect. Although this does not guarantee a correct answer, it gives us confidence that we
approached the problem correctly.
EXAMPLE 2 Buying Farm Land
You are buying 30 acres of farm land at $12,000 per acre. What is the total cost?
Solution
Step 1. The question ask about total cost, and one of the given units is dollars, so we expect an
answer in dollars.
Step 2. The key word of suggests multiplication, and we realize that we can end up with an answer
in dollars by multiplying the acreage by the cost per acre:
$ 12,000
30 acres × = $360,000
1 acre
Step 3. We have found that the land costs $360,000. Note that the answer has come out with the
units we expect.

How Unit Analysis Can Prevent Errors

Example 1 and 2 illustrate the proper way to deal with units and ensure that the answers come out
with the units we expect. To see why this technique is so valuable, it’s worth looking at what can
happen when you do not use it. The following example should make the point clear.

EXAMPLE 3 Exam Check

You are grader for a math course. An exam question reads: “Eli purchased 5 pounds of apples at a
price of 50 cents per pound. How much did he pay for the apples?” On the paper you are grading,
a student has written: “50 ÷ 5 = 10. He paid 10 cents.” Write a note to the student explaining what
went wrong.
Solution Dear student----first, notice that your answers does not make sense. If 1 pound of apple
costs 50c, how could 5 pounds cost only 10c? You could have prevented your error by keeping
track of the units. In the exam question, the number 50 has units of cents per pound and the
number 5 has units of pound. Therefore, your calculation of “50 ÷ 5 = 10” means
c c 1 c
50
lb
÷ 5 lb = 50 ×
lb 5lb
= 10 2
lb
(As usual, we replaced the division with multiplication by the reciprocal). Your calculation gives
units of “cents per square pound,” so it cannot be correct for a question that asks for a price. The
correct calculation multiplies the price per pound by the weight in pounds:
c
50 × 5 lb = 250c = $2.50
lb
The units now work out as they should: The 5 pounds of apples cost $2.50.

Unit Analysis as a Problem-Solving Tool

The most valuable aspects of unit analysis is that it can often point the way to solving a problem
that you may not initially know how to solve. Even scientists and applied mathematics often start
analyzing a problem by looking at its units, and unit analysis has sometimes led to important
discoveries. The following three examples show how this approach works.

Example 4 Price Comparison

You are planning to make pesto and need to buy basil. At the grocery store, you can buy small
containers of basil priced at $2.99 for each 2/3-ounce container. At the farmer’s market, you can
buy basil in bunches for $12 per pound. Which is the better deal?
Solution: To compare the prices, we need them both in the same units. Let’s convert the small
container price to a price per pound. We start with the fact that the container price is $2.99 per
2/3 ounce, which means we need to divide. We then multiply by the conversion of 16 ounces per
pound:
$ 2.99
16 oz $ 71.76
Container price = 2 oz ×
1 lb
= lb
3
The small containers are priced at almost $72 per pound, which is six times as much as the
farmer’s market price.

Example 5 Gas Mileage

Your destination is 90 miles away, and your fuel gauge shows that your gas tank is one-quarter full.
Your tank holds 12 gallons of gas, and your car averages about 25 miles per gallon. Do you need to
stop for gas?
Solution: There are several ways to think about this problem, but using unit analysis makes it
particularly easy. The question relates to “how much gas,” so we need an answer with units of
gallons. We are given the distance you need to travel (90 miles) and the gas mileage (25 miles per
gallon), so we look for a way to combine these pieces of information and end up with an answer in
gallons. We can do so by dividing the distance by the mileage, then replacing division with
multiplication by the reciprocal:
25 mi 1 gal
90 mi ÷
1 gal
= 90 mi × 25 min = 3.6 gal
You will need 3.6 gallons of gas for the 90-mile trip, but one-quarter of a 12-gallon tank is only 3
gallons. Therefore, you should stop for gas.

Example 6 Melting Ice

The chapter-opening activity asked about the impact of melting of ice in Antarctica and Greenland.
If you succeed in answering it, you found that melting the Antarctic ice would release about 25
million cubic kilometers of water, which would spread out over Earth’s 340 million square
kilometers of ocean surface. Use unit analysis to find the amount that sea level will rise.
Solution: A rise in sea level has units of height, which is the same as a length. We are given a
volume, which has units of length3, and an area, which has units of length 2. Notice that dividing
length3 by length2 results in a length, so we can find an answer with the correct units simply by
dividing the volume of water by the surface area of the oceans:
25 million km3
≈ 0.074 km = 74 m.
340 million km2
We have found that sea level would rise by 74 meters, or about 240 feet.

Time Out to Think: Come up with your own example of a problem that you can solve through
unit analysis, preferably a problem that you may not have known how to solve before.
Units of Energy and Power
We pay energy bills to power companies, we use energy form gasoline to run our cars, and we
argue about whether nuclear energy is a sensible alternative to fossil fuels. But what is energy?
Broadly speaking, energy is what makes matter move or heat up. We need energy form
food to keep our hearts beating, to maintain our body temperatures, and to walk or run. A car
needs energy to move the pistons in its engine, which turn the wheels. A light bulb needs energy
to generate light.
For Americans, the most familiar energy unit is the food Calorie (uppercase C) used to
measure the energy our bodies can draw from food. A typical adult uses about 2500 Calories of
energy each day. The international metric unit of energy is the joule. One Calorie is equivalent is
4184 joules.
The words energy and power are often used together, but they are not the same. Power is
the rate at which energy is used, which means it has units of energy divided by time. The most
common unit of power is the watt, defined as 1 joule per second.
Energy and Power
Energy is what makes matter move or heat up. The international metric unit of energy is the joule.
Power is the rate at which energy is used. The international metric unit of power is the watt,
defined as
joule
1 watt = 1
s

Example 7 Pedal Power

As you ride an exercise bicycle, the display states that you are using 500 Calories per hour. Are you
generating enough power to light a 100-watt bulb? (1 Calorie = 4184 joule).
Solution: We use a chain of conversions to go from Calories per hour to joules per second:
500Cal 4184 joule 1 hr 1min joule
× × × ≈ 581
¿ 1 hr 1Cal 60 min 60 s s
Your pedaling generates energy at a rate of 581 joules per second, which is a power of 581 watts—
enough to light five (almost six) 100-watt bulbs.
Electric Utility Bills
On utility bills, electrical energy is usually measured in units in kilowatt-hours. Recall that the
hyphen implies multiplication, and one kilowatt means 1000 watts, which is 1000 joule/s, we
therefore find that:
1000 joule 60 min 60 s
1 kilowatt-hour = 1s
× 1 hr ×
1 hr
×
1min
= 3,600,000 joule
Definition
A kilowatt-hour is a unit of energy:
1 kilowatt-hour = 3.6 million joules
EXAMPLE 8 Operating Cost of a Light Bulb
Your utility company charges 15c per kilowatt-hour of electricity. How much does it cost to keep a
100-watt light bulb on for a week? How much will you save in a year if you replace the bulb with an
LED bulb that provides the same account of light for only 25 watts of power?
Solution First, we find the energy the bulb uses in a week. We find the energy in kilowatt-hours by
multiplying the bulb’s power use in kilowatts by the time in hours. We use a chain of conversion to
convert the bulb’s 100 watts to kilowatts and one week to hours:
1 kilowatt 7 day 24 hr
100 watt × 1000 watt × 1 week × 1 week × 1day = 16.8 kilowatt-hour
We know find the cost of this energy by multiplying it by the price of 154 per kilowatt-hour:
c
16.8 kilowatt-hour × 15
kilowatt−hr
= 252c = 2.52
The electricity for the bulb costs $2.52 per week. If you replace the 100-watt bulb with a 25-watt
1
LED, you’ll use only as much energy, which means your weekly cost will be only 63c. In other
4
words, your savings will be $2.52 - $0.63 = $1.89 per week, so in a year you’ll save about:
1.89 wk
Yearly savings with energy-efficient bulb: × 52 ≈ 98/yr
wk yr
For a bulb left on all the time, the more efficient bulb would save almost $100 per year. Of course,
you probably have the light on only a few hours each day.

Time Out to Think Check a utility bill (yours or a friend’s). Is the electricity usage metered in
units of kilowatt-hours (often abbreviated KWh)? If not, what units are used? If so, what is the
price per kilowatt-hour?
Units of Density and Concentration
You’ll encounter many other measurement units in everyday life. In most cases, these units will be
variations on units with which you are already familiar, so you should be able to make sense of
them from their context. Units that describe various type of density or concentration are
particularly common.
Density describes compactness or crowding. Here are a few of the many ways that the idea
of density is used:

 Material density is given in units of mass per unit volume, such as grams per cubic
centimeter (g/cm3). A useful reference is the density of water—about 1 g/cm 3. Objects with
densities less than 1 g/cm3 float in water, while higher-density objects sink.
 Population density is given by the number of people per unit area. For example, if 750
people live in a square region than is 1 mile on a side, the population density of the area is
750 people/mi2.
 Information density is often used to describe how much memory can be stored by digital
media. For example, each square inch on the on the surface of a dual-layer Blu-ray Disc
holds about 1 gigabyte of information, so we say that the disk has an information density of
1 GB/in2.

Time Out to Think: Use the concept of density to explain why you float better in a swimming
pool when your lungs are filled with air than when you fully exhale.

Concentration describes the amount of one substance mixed with another. Here are three
of the many ways in which concentration is used:
  The concentration of an air pollutant is often measured by the number of molecules of the
pollutant per million molecules of air. For example, if there are 12 molecules of carbon
monoxide in each 1 million molecules of air, the carbon monoxide concentration is 12 parts
per million (ppm). (The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that air is unhealthy if
the carbon monoxide concentration is above 9 ppm.)
 Medicine dosages often require calculations based on a recommended concentration per
kilogram of body weight or the concentration of an active ingredient in a liquid suspension
or IV drip. For example, a recommended dosage might be 2 milligram per kilogram (2
mg/kg) of body weight, and the concentration of the medicine in a liquid suspension might
be 10 milligrams per milliliter (10 mg/ml).
 Blood alcohol content (BAC) describes the concentration of alcohol in a person’s body. It is
usually measured in units of grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood. For example, in
most of the United States, a driver over age 21 is considered legally intoxicated if his or her
blood alcohol content is at or above 0.08 gram of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood
(written as 0.08 g/100 mL).

Save Money and Save the Earth

You can save both money and energy by replacing standard (incandescent) light bulbs with more
efficient bulbs, such as compact fluorescents or LEDs (light emitting diodes). These bulbs save
energy because virtually all the energy they use goes into making light, whereas most of the
energy used by standard bulbs goes into heat (which is why they get so hot). As a result, compact
fluorescents and LEDs typically need only about one-quarter as much energy as standard bulbs to
generate the same amount of light. For example, a 25-watt compact fluorescent can produce as
much light as a 100-watt standard bulb.
The energy savings can be quite substantial. In Example 8, we found that a single
replacement bulb could save almost $100 per year if the bulb were left on all the time. More
realistically, using the bulb for an average of 3 hours each night—or 1/8 of each 24-hour day—
would still save more than $12 per year. Over the several years that compact fluorescents and
LEDs typically last, this savings more than makes up for their higher initial cost.

Example 9 New York City

Manhattan Island has a population of about 1.6 million people living in an area of about 57 square
kilometers. What is its population density? If there were no high-rise apartments, how much space
would be available per person?
Solution: We divide the population by the area to find that
1,600,000 people people
Population density = 2 ≈ 28,000 2
57 km km
Manhattan’s population density is about 28,000 people per square kilometer. If there were no high
rises, each resident would have 1/28,000 square kilometer of land. This number is easier to
interpret if we convert form square kilometers to square meters:
2 2 2 2
1 km 1000 m 2 1 km 1,000,000 m
×( ) = × ≈ 36 m
28,000 people 1 km 28,000 people 1 km 2
person
Without high rises, each person would have only 36 square meters, equivalent to a room 6 meters,
or about 20 feet, on a side—and this does not include any space for roads, schools, or other
common properties. Clearly, Manhattan Island could not fit so many residents without high rises.

Example 10 Ear Infection

A child weighing 15 kilograms has a bacterial ear infection. A physician orders treatment with
amoxicillin at a dosage based on 30 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day, divided into
doses every 12 hours.

a. How much amoxicillin should the child be prescribed every 12 hours?

b. If the medicine is to be taken in a liquid suspension with concentration 25 mg/ml, how
much should the child take every 12 hours?

Solution:

a. The prescribed dosage is 30 mg/kg of body weight per day, but because it will be given in
two doses (every 12 hours), each dose will be based on half of the total, or 15 mg/kg of
body weight. Therefore, for a child weighing 15 kilograms, the dosage should be
15 mg
Dose every 12 hours = × 15 kg = 225 mg
kg
(dose per kg (child’s body
body weight) weight

b. The liquid suspension contain 25 milligrams of amoxicillin per milliliter (ml) of liquid, and
from part (a) we know the total amount of amoxicillin in each dose should be 225 mg. we
are looking for the total amount of liquid that the child should be given for each dose, so
the answer should have units of milliliters. The only way to get the correct answer units is to
divide, replacing division with multiplication by the reciprocal.
25 mg 1 ml
Liquid dose = 225 mg ÷
ml
= 225 mg ×
25 mg
= 9 ml
(required
(concentration
amoxicillin dose)
of liquid suspension)

The child should be given 9 milliliters of the liquid every 12 hours.

Example 11 Blood Alcohol Content (BAC)

We know consider the solution to our chapter opening question (p.68). An average-sized man has
about 5 liters (5000 milliliters) of blood, and an average 12-ounce can of beer contains about 15
grams of alcohol (assuming the beer is about 6% alcohol by volume). If all the alcohol were
immediately absorbed into the bloodstream, what blood alcohol content would we find in an
average-sized man who quickly drank a single can of beer? How much beer would make him legally
intoxicated (DAC of 0.08)?
Solution If the alcohol were absorbed immediately, the man’s 5000 milliliters of blood would
contain the entire 15 grams of alcohol from the beer. We express this concentration as
15 g alcohol
5000 mL blood
We convert to standard units for blood alcohol in two steps. First, we carry out the division to find
the concentration in grams per milliliters:
15 g g
= 0.003
5000 mL mL
Next, we multiply both the top and the bottom of the fraction by 100 to find the concentration in
grams per 100 milliliters:
g 100 g
0.003 × = 0.3
mL 100 100 mL
The man’s blood alcohol concentration would be 0.3 gram per 100 milliliters of blood—almost four
times the legal limit of 0.08 g/100 mL. Therefore, it would take only about one-quarter of the can,
or 3 ounces of beer, to reach the legal limit. In reality, the man’s blood alcohol content won’t get
this high form a single beer, because it takes some time for all the alcohol to be absorbed into the
bloodstream (typically 30 minutes on an empty stomach and up to 2 hours on a full stomach) and
because metabolic processes gradually eliminate the absorbed alcohol (at a rate of about 10 to 15
grams per hour). Nevertheless, a single beer is enough to cause impaired brain function—making it
unsafe to drive—and this example points out how quickly and easily a person can become
dangerously intoxicated.

Time Out to Think: Many college students have lost their lives by rapidly consuming several
“shots” of strong alcoholic drinks. Explain why such rapid consumption of alcohol can lead to
death, even when the total amount of alcohol consumed may not sound like a lot.

Quick Quiz 2B
Choose the best answer to each of the following questions. Explain your reasoning with one or
more complete sentences.

1. To end up with units of speed, you need to

a. Multiply a distance by a time.
b. Divide a distance by a time.
c. Divide a time by a distance.
2. You are given two pieces of information: (1) the volume of a lake in cubic feet and (2) the
average depth of the lake in feet. You are asked to find the surface area of the lake in
square feet. You should
a. Multiply the volume by the depth.
b. Divide the volume by the depth.
c. Divide the depth by the volume.
3. You are given two pieces of information: (1) the price of gasoline in dollars per gallon and
(2) the gas mileage of a car in miles per gallon. You are asked to find the cost of driving this
car in dollars per mile. You should.
a. Divide the price of gas by the car’s gas mileage.
b. Multiply the price of gas by the car’s gas mileage.
c. Divide the car’s gas mileage by the price of gas.
4. Which of the following is not a unit of energy?
 a. Joules
b. Watts
c. Kilowatt-hours
5. You want to know how much total energy is required to operate a 100-watt light bulb. Do
you need any more information?
a. No.
b. Yes; you need to know the temperature of the light bulb when it is on.
c. Yes; you need to know how long the light bulb is on.
6. New Mexico has a population density of about 12 people per square mile and an area of
about 120,000 square miles. To find its actual population, you should
a. Multiply the population density by the area.
b. Divide the population density by the area.
c. Divide the area by the population density.
7. The concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere might be stated in
a. Grams per meter.
b. parts per million
c. joules per watt.
8. The guidelines for a particular drug specify a dose of 300 mg per kilogram of body weight
per day. To find how much of the drug should be given to a 30-kg child every eight hours,
you should
a. Multiply 300 mg/kg/day by 30 kg and multiply that result by 3.
b. Divide 300 mg/kg/day by 30 kg and multiply that result by 3.
c. Multiply 300 mg/kg/day by 30 kg and divide that result by 3.
9. A blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 gm/100 mL means
a. A person with 4 liters of blood has 0.08/4 = 0.02 grams of alcohol in his blood.
b. A person with 4 liters of blood has 0.08 × 40 = 3.2 grams of alcohol in his blood.
c. A person with 4 liters of blood has 0.08/40 = 0.002 grams of alcohol in his blood.
10. Which has more people, Country A with an area of 100 mi 2 and a population density of 25
people/mi2 or City B with an area of km2 and a population density of 100 people/km2?
a. Country A
b. City B
c. The populations are equal.

Exercises 2B
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Briefly describe how units can help you check your answers and solve problems. Give
examples.
2. What is energy? List at least three common units of energy. Under what circumstances do
the different units tend to be used?
3. What is the difference between energy and power? What are the standard units for
powers?
 4. What do you mean by density? What do we mean by concentration? Describe common
units of density and concentration, including blood alcohol content, with examples.

DOES IT MAKE SENSE?

Decide whether each of the following statements makes sense (or is clearly true) or does not make
sense (or is clearly false). Explain your reasoning. Hint: Be sure to consider whether the units are
appropriate to the statement, as well as whether the stated amount makes any sense. For
example, a statement that someone is 15 feet tall uses the units (feet) appropriately, but does not
make sense because no one is that tall.

5. I figured out how long the airplane will take to reach Beijing by dividing the airplane’s
speed by the distance to Beijing.
6. I figured out how long the airplane will take to reach Beijing by dividing the distance to
Beijing by the airplane’s speed.
7. My daily food intake gives me about 10 millions joules of energy.
8. Our utility company charges 10c per watt for the electricity we use.
9. The beach ball we played with had a density of 10 grams per cubic centimeter.
10. I live in a big city with a population density of 15 people per square kilometer.
11. The nurse gave a 100-kilogram man twice as large a dose as a 50-kilogram woman.
12. My friend was legally intoxicated after having two glasses of wine with dinner.

BASIC AKILLS & CONCEPTS

13-26: Working with Units. Use unit conversion to answer the following questions.

13. An airliner travels 45 miles in 5 minutes. What is its speed in miles per hour?
14. What is the total cost of 1.2 cubic yards of soil if it sells for $24 per cubic yard?
15. A hose fills a hot tub at a rate of 3.2 gallons per minute. How many hours will it take to fill
a 3000-gallon hot tub?
16. Competition speed skydivers have reached record speeds of 614 miles per hour. At this
speed, how many feet would you fall every second?
17. How much would you pay for 2.5 ounces of gold at a price of $420 per ounce?
18. Suppose you earn $8.50 per hour and work 24 eight-hour days in a month. How much do
you earn in that month?
19. In 2008, 565,650 Americans died of (all forms of) cancer. Assuming a population of 305
million, what was the mortality rate in units of deaths per 100,000 people?
20. In 2008, about 310,000 Americans died of sudden cardiac deaths (about half of all deaths
from coronary heart disease). Assuming a population of 305 million, what was the
mortality rate in units of deaths per 100,000 people?
21. There are approximately 3 million births in the Unites States each year. Find the birth rate
in units of births per minute?
22. During a long road trip, you drive 420 miles on a 12-gallon tank of gas. What is your gas
mileage (in miles per gallon)?
 23. If your car gets 28 miles per gallon, how much does it cost to drive 250 miles when
gasoline costs $2.90 per gallon?
24. The median salary for the New York Yankees in 2008 was $1,875,000. Assuming a 160-
game season, express this salary in dollars per game.
25. If you sleep an average of 8 hours each night, how many hours do you sleep in a year?
26. A human heart beats about 70 times per minute. If an average human being lives to the
age of 80, how many times does the average heart beat in a lifetime?

27-30: What Went Wrong? Consider the following exam questions and student solutions.
Determine whether the solution is correct. If it is not correct, write a note to the student
explaining why it is wrong and give a correct solution

27. Exam Question: A candy store sells chocolate for $7.70 per pound. The piece you want to
buy weighs 0.11 pound. How much will it cost, to the nearest cent? (Neglect sale tax).
Student Solution: 0.11 ÷ 7.70 = 0.014. It will cost 1.4c.
28. Exam Question: You ride your bike up a steep mountain road at 5 miles per hour. How far
do you go in 3 hours?
Student Solution: 5 ÷ 3 = 1.7. 1 ride 1.7 miles
29. Exam Question: You can buy a 50-pound bag of flour for $11 or you can buy a 1-pound bag
for $0.39. Compare the per pound cost for the large and small bags.
Student Solution: The large bag price is 50 ÷ 411 = $4.55 per pound, which is much more
than the 39c per pound of the small bag.
30. Exam Question: The average person needs 1500 calories per day. A can of Coke contains
140 Calories. How many Cokes would you need to drink to fill your daily caloric needs?
Student solution: 1500 × 140 = 210,000. You would need to drink 210,000 Cokes to meet
your daily caloric needs.

31-34: Price Comparison. In each case, decide which of the two given prices id the better deal and
explain why.

31. You can buy shampoo in a 6 ounce bottle for $3.99 or in a 14-ounce bottle for $9.49.
32. You can buy one dozen eggs for 42.30 or 30 eggs for $5.50.
33. You can fill a 15-gallon tank of gas for $55.20 or buy gas for $3.60/gal.
34. You can rent a storage locker for $32/yd2 per month or for $s/ft2 per week.

35-38: Gas Mileage. Answer the following practical gas mileage questions.

35. You plan to take a 2000-mile trip in your car, which averages 32 miles per gallon. How
many gallons of gasoline should you expect to use? Would a car that has only half the gas
mileage (16 miles per gallon) require twice as much gasoline for the same trip? Explain.
36. Two friends take a 3000-mile cross-country trip together, but they drive their own cars. Car
A has a 12-gallon gas tank and averages 40 miles per gallon, while car B has a 20-gallon gas
tank and averages 30 miles per gallon. Assume both drivers pay an average of $3.90 per
gallon of gas.
a. What is the cost of one full tank of gas for car A? for car B?
 b. How many tanks of gas do cars A and B each use for the trip?
c. How much do the drivers of cars A and B each pay for gas for the trip?
37. Gas mileage actually varies slightly with the driving speed of a car (as well as with highway
vs. city driving). Suppose your car averages 38 miles per gallon on the highway if your
average speed is 55 miles per hour, and it averages 32 miles per gallon on the highway if
your average speed is 70 miles per hour.
a. What is the driving time for a 2000-mile trip if you drive at an average speed of 55 miles
per hour? What is the driving time at 70 miles per hour?
b. Assume a gasoline price of $3.90 per gallon. What is the gasoline cost for a 2000-mile
trip if you drive at an average speed of 55 miles per hour? What is the gasoline cost at
70 miles per hour?
38. Suppose your car averages 32 miles per gallon on the highway if your average speed is 60
miles per hour, and it averages 25 miles per gallon on the highway if your average speed is
75 miles per hour.
a. What is the driving time for a 1500-mile trip if you drive at an average speed of 60 miles
per hour? What is the driving time at 75 miles per hour?
b. Assume a gasoline price of $3.90 per gallon. What is the gasoline cost for a 1500-mile
trip if you drive at an average speed of 60 miles per hour? What is the gasoline cost at
75 miles per hour?
39. Greenland Ice Sheet. The Greenland Ice Sheet contains about 3 million cubic kilometers of
ice. If completely melted, this ice would release about 2.5 million cubic kilometers of
water, which would spread out over Earth’s 340 million square kilometers of ocean
surface. How much would sea level rise?
40. Volcanic Eruption. The greatest volcanic eruption in recorded history took place in 1815 on
the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, when the volcano Tambora expelled an estimated 100
cubic kilometers of molten rock. Suppose all of the ejected material fell on a region with an
area of 600 square kilometers. Find the average depth of the resulting layer of ash and
rock.

41-42: Power Output. In each case, find your average power in watts.

41. Assume running consumes 100 Calories per mile. If you run 10-minutes miles, what is your
average power output, in watts, during a 1-hour run?
42. Assume that riding a bike burns 50 Calories per mile. If you ride at a speed of 15 miles per
hour, what is your average power output, in watts?

43-44: Energy Savings. For these questions, assume 365 days in a year.

43. Your utility company charges 13c per kilowatt-hour of electricity. What is the daily cost of
keeping lit a 75-watt light bulb for 12 hours each day? How much will you save in a year if
you replace the bulb with an LED bulb that provides the same amount of light using only 15
watts of power?
44. Suppose you have a clothes dryer that uses 4000 watts of power and you run it for an
average of 1 hour each day. If you pay the utility company 14c per kilowatt-hour of
 electricity, what is the average daily cost to run your dryer? How much would you save in a
year if you replace it with a more efficient model that uses only 2000 watts?

45-50: Densities. Compare the following densities using the appropriate units.

45. A cube of wood measures 3 centimeters on a side and it weighs 20 grams. What is its
density? Will it float in water?
46. At room temperature, a 0.1-cubic-centimeter sample of plutonium weighs 1.98 grams.
What is its density? Will it float in water?
47. The land area of the United States is about 3.5 million square miles, and the population is
about 306 million people. What is the average population density?
48. The country with the greatest population density is Monaco, where approximately 32,500
people live in an area of 1.95 square kilometers. What is the population density of Monaco
in people per square kilometers? Compare this density to that of the United States, which
is approximately 31 people per square kilometer.
49. New Jersey and Alaska have population of 8.7 million and 680,000, respectively (U.S.
Census Bureau, 2008). There areas are 7417 and 572,951 square miles, respectively.
Compare the population densities of both states.
50. A Standard DVD has a surface area of 134 square centimeters. Depending on formatting, it
holds either 4.7 or 8.5 gigabytes. Find the data density in both cases.

51-52. Medication Doses

51. The antihistamine Benadryl is often prescribed for allergies. A typical dose for a 100-pound
person is 25 mg every six hours.
a. Following this dosage, how many 12.5 mg chewable tablets would be taken in a week?
b. Benadryl also comes in liquid from with a concentration of 12.5mg/5 mL. Following the
prescribed dosage, how much liquid Benadryl should a 100-pound person take in a
week?
52. Suppose a dose of 9000 units/kg of penicillin is prescribed every six hours for treatment of
a bacterial infection. For penicillin, 400,000 units is equal to 250mg.
a. Express the dose in mg per kg of body weight.
b. How many milligrams of penicillin would a 20-kg child take in one day?
53. Blood Alcohol Content Wine. A typical glass of wine contains about 20 grams of alcohol.
Consider a 110-pound woman, with approximately 4 liters (4000 milliliters) of blood, who
drinks two glasses of wine.
a. If all the alcohol were immediately absorbed into her bloodstream, what would her
blood alcohol content be? Explain why it is fortunate that, in reality, the alcohol is not
absorbed immediately.
b. Again assume as the alcohol is absorbed immediately, but no assume her body
eliminates the alcohol (through metabolism) at a rate of 10 grams per hour. What is her
blood alcohol content 3 hours after drinking the wine? Is it Safe for her to drive at this
time? Explain.
 54. Blood Alcohol Content: Hard Liquor. Eight ounces of a hard liquor (such as whiskey)
typically contain about 70 grams of alcohol. Consider a 200-pound man, with
approximately 6 liters (6000 milliliters) of bold, who quickly drinks 8 ounces of hard liquor.
a. If all the alcohol were immediately absorbed into his bloodstream, what would his
blood alcohol content be? Explain why it is fortunate that, in reality, the alcohol is not
absorbed immediately.
b. Again assume all the alcohol is absorbed immediately, but now assume his body
eliminates the alcohol (through metabolism) at a rate of 15 grams per hour. What is his
blood alcohol content 4 hours after drinking the liquor? Is it safe for him to drive at this
time? Explain.

FURTHER APPLICATIONS
55. The Metric Mile. Two historic races in track and field are the mile (1 USCS mile) and the
“metric mile” (1500 meters).
a. Complete the sentence: The metric mile is _________% of the USCS mile in length.
b. Consider the following world records in the two events (as of 2013). Compute and
compare the average speed in the men’s mile and metric mile races.

Men Women
Mile 3:43:13 4:12:56
Metric Mile 3:26:00 3:50:46
c. Compute and compare the average speed in the women’s mile and metric mile races.
d. If the average speed for the metric mile were run for the entire length of a mile race,
would it result in a world record? Answer for both men and women.
56. Practical Carpet problem. Suppose you want to install carpet in a room that measures 18
feet by 22 feet. The carpet you want costs $28.50 per square yard and comes only in rolls
that are 12 feet wide (and at least 100 feet long). If you allow only one seam (where two
pieces of carpet meet), what is the most efficient way to lay the carpet and how much will
the carpet cost?
57. Shower vs. Bath. Assume that when you take a bath, you fill a tub to the halfway point and
the tub measures 6 feet by 3 feet by 2.5 feet. When you take a shower, you use a shower
head with a flow rate of 1.75 gallons per minute and you typically spend 10 minutes in the
shower. There are 7.5 gallons in one cubic foot.
a. Do you use more water taking a shower or taking a bath?
b. How long would you need to shower in order to use as much water as you use taking a
bath?
c. Assuming your shower is in a bath tub, propose a non-mathematical way to compare, in
one experiment, the amounts of water you use taking a shower and a bath.
58. Supertankers. An oil supertanker has a deadweight tonnage (the total amount that it carry
in crew, supplies, and cargo) of 300,000 long tons.
a. How many kilograms can the tanker carry?
 b. Assume that the tonnage consists entirely of oil. If the density of oil is 850 kilograms per
cubic meter, how many cubic meters of oil can the tanker carry?
c. Assume that 1000 liters of oil has a volume of 1 cubic meter. How many barrels of oil
can the tanker carry? (Use data from Table 2.1 and 2.3).
d. Find the current price of oil in dollars per barrel. What is the value of the oil carried by a
full tanker?
59. Lake Victoria. Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake and the second largest freshwater lake in
the world in terms of surface area. Its volume is approximately 2750 cubic kilometers and
its surface area is 68,800 square kilometers.