Chapter 6.3, Problem 9CYU

To determine

The vegetation in grams an elephant can eat per minute.

Answer to Problem 9CYU

An elephant can eat $\text{138}\text{.60 grams}$ of vegetation per minute.

Explanation of Solution

Given information:

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

Formula used:

Conversion formula for converting pounds into grams 1 pound is $453.592$ grams.

One day contains 24 hours and hours and minutes are related to each other by a mathematical equation which is expressed as,

  $1\text{hour}=60\text{minutes}$

Calculation:

Consider the provided statement “An elephant can eat up to $440$ pounds of vegetation every day.”

Recall that the conversions rule that 1 pound is $453.592$ grams.

So, $440$ pounds is evaluated as when $440$ is multiplied by $453.592$ .

Therefore, $440$ pounds is,

  $\begin{array}{c}1\text{lb}=453.592\text{g}\\ 440\text{lb}=\left(440\times 453.592\right)\text{g}\\ 440\text{lb}=199,580.48\text{g}\end{array}$

Now, recall that a day contains $24$ hours and conversion rule that $1\text{hour}=60\text{minutes}$ .

So, $24$ hours is evaluated as when $24$ is multiplied by $60$ .

Therefore, $24$ hours is,

  $\begin{array}{c}1\text{hr}=60\min \\ 24\text{hrs}=\left(24\times 60\right)\min \\ 24\text{hrs}=1440\min \end{array}$

From the above two calculations, it is concluded that an elephant eats $199,580.48\text{g}$ of vegetation in $1440$ minutes.

So, to evaluate how much an elephant eats per minute, it will be evaluated as when $199,580.48\text{g}$ is divided by $1440$ .

Therefore, in one minute elephant can eat is,

  $\begin{array}{c}1440\min =199,580.48\text{g}\\ 1\min =\frac{199,580.48}{1440}\\ 1\min =138.5978\text{g}\end{array}$

Rounding off to the nearest hundredth,

  $1\min =138.60\text{g}$

Hence, an elephant can eat $\text{138}\text{.60g}$ per minute.