Chapter 6.3, Problem 9CYU

To determine

To calculate: The amount of grams per minute an elephant can eat.

Answer to Problem 9CYU

138.72 grams per minute

Explanation of Solution

Given information:

An elephant can eat up to 440 pounds of vegetation every day.

Calculation:

To convert pounds to gram, using $1\text{lb}\approx 0.454\text{kg}\text{and}1\text{kg}=1000\text{gm}$

To convert day to minutes, using $1\text{day}=24\text{ h and 1 h}=\text{60 min}$

  $\begin{array}{l}\frac{440\text{lb}}{1\text{ day}}\cdot \frac{\text{0}\text{.454 kg }}{1\text{ lb}}\cdot \frac{\text{1000 gm}}{1\text{ kg}}\cdot \frac{1\text{ day}}{24\text{ h}}\cdot \frac{1\text{ h}}{60\text{ min}}\\ =\frac{440\cancel{\text{lb}}}{1\cancel{\text{day}}}\cdot \frac{\text{0}\text{.454 }\cancel{\text{kg}}}{1\cancel{\text{lb}}}\cdot \frac{\text{1000 gm}}{1\cancel{\text{kg}}}\cdot \frac{1\cancel{\text{day}}}{24\cancel{\text{h}}}\cdot \frac{1\cancel{\text{h}}}{60\text{ min}}[\text{Dividing common units]}\\ \text{=}\frac{199760\text{ gm}}{1440\text{ min}}\text{ [Multiplying]}\\ \approx \frac{138.72\text{ gm}}{\text{1 min}}\text{ [Dividing]}\end{array}$

An elephant can eat up to 138.72 grams of vegetation per minute.