The brightness of a supernova is probably on a magnitude of e6 of the sun or so. Then inverse square law: L/d^2 = Ls/ds^2; e6 Ls /d^2 = Ls/1 au; d = e3 au. Fermi answer: 3
Hyperphysics says supernovas can be e10 times brighter than the sun, so my approximation was pretty off. I think the rest of the steps were right, so real fermi answer: 5.
My Ramen cup noodles is in need of some food colouring. How many pens do I need to make some blue/black ink ramen soup?
Re: Fermi Questions C
Posted: May 23rd, 2017, 1:20 pm
by Unome
- Guesstimating a concentration of E-5 is sufficient for coloration
- E-1 pens should do it, based on the size of a cup of ramen. This is basically just guessing here.
Fermi Answer: -1
Literally I cannot find anything on the subject of how much ink is needed for it to be visible in water. If anyone knows anything abut this that would be great.
How many times have Science Olympiad competitors built models for Write It Do It while at tournaments in the last ten years?
Re: Fermi Questions C
Posted: May 23rd, 2017, 4:14 pm
by Raleway
Unome wrote:
- Guesstimating a concentration of E-5 is sufficient for coloration
- E-1 pens should do it, based on the size of a cup of ramen. This is basically just guessing here.
Fermi Answer: -1
Literally I cannot find anything on the subject of how much ink is needed for it to be visible in water. If anyone knows anything abut this that would be great.
How many times have Science Olympiad competitors built models for Write It Do It while at tournaments in the last ten years?
I think blue wavelength is approx 475 NM? Might be wrong. I would guess each drop is approx 0.05 mL (I learned this from my dad, a PhD in chemistry so I guess it's right), and if the ramen cup is around 10 CM across, could you try using beer's law??? I don't think that'd be a good approach... Black is a bad color to use because true black is defined as reflecting back absolutely no light. Still clueless ))
And I would guess approximately 250 regional tournaments, 50 state, and 1 national tournament per year. Knowing the total number of teams in the nation is around 7000 and hopefully it averages out to that for 10 years, and adding on about 50 invitationals (from test bank knowledge from each invitational), that adds up to 351 tournaments a year, or 3000 over ten (estimating drop off from the earlier years). Multiplying by 7000 teams and assuming no DQ teams, then approximately 21000000 builds have been done, or 2.1 * 10^7. Final answer: 7
My question (see I'll post one!): How long would all the music stands in the US be if they were lined up end to end?
Re: Fermi Questions C
Posted: May 23rd, 2017, 6:07 pm
by talkingturtle101
- So say 50 million people in the U.S. can play an instrument (it's probably a lot lower than this).
- Out of those, maybe 5 million own a stand.
- A stand, when fully extended, is about 1.5 meters tall.
- This is 7.5 million meters of stand.
- However, 25 million people probably also use a stand at school or private lessons or someplace.
- This is 37.5 million meters of stand.
- The real number is probably a lot higher than this, but Fermi Answer of 7.
- I can't find any information about how many people own music stands, or how many there are. If someone could please help that would be great.
How many microwaves would you have to run at the same time to make their combined energy use equal to the amount of energy the Sun outputs every second?
Re: Fermi Questions C
Posted: May 23rd, 2017, 7:32 pm
by Adi1008
talkingturtle101 wrote:
- So say 50 million people in the U.S. can play an instrument (it's probably a lot lower than this).
- Out of those, maybe 5 million own a stand.
- A stand, when fully extended, is about 1.5 meters tall.
- This is 7.5 million meters of stand.
- However, 25 million people probably also use a stand at school or private lessons or someplace.
- This is 37.5 million meters of stand.
- The real number is probably a lot higher than this, but Fermi Answer of 7.
- I can't find any information about how many people own music stands, or how many there are. If someone could please help that would be great.
How many microwaves would you have to run at the same time to make their combined energy use equal to the amount of energy the Sun outputs every second?
From an OWL question, I remember a 600W microwave. Exponent is 3.
From astronomy, I know that the luminosity of the sun is 3.846E26 W. Exponent is 26.
Dividing gives a Fermi Answer of 23
Google searches give about 1000W for a microwave. The luminosity of the sun is as was stated previously, 3.846E26 W. The actual answer would be 23 (I think)
Re: Fermi Questions C
Posted: May 24th, 2017, 10:45 am
by talkingturtle101
You forgot to post a question
Re: Fermi Questions C
Posted: May 24th, 2017, 6:51 pm
by Raleway
How many post-its would be required to cover the entire Pacific Ocean?
CHALLENGE: How many post-its would be required to fill the entire Pacific Ocean assuming it take the densest packing structure with no air gaps?
Re: Fermi Questions C
Posted: May 24th, 2017, 8:03 pm
by NeilMehta
Raleway wrote:How many post-its would be required to cover the entire Pacific Ocean?
CHALLENGE: How many post-its would be required to fill the entire Pacific Ocean assuming it take the densest packing structure with no air gaps?
Attempt: Post it is about .1m length and width, for a surface area of E-2
earth radius is 6 million meters, meaning surface area is about E15 m^2
pacific ocean is pretty big, about E14 at least
so E16 post its??
Re: Fermi Questions C
Posted: May 24th, 2017, 8:07 pm
by NeilMehta
NeilMehta wrote:
Raleway wrote:How many post-its would be required to cover the entire Pacific Ocean?
CHALLENGE: How many post-its would be required to fill the entire Pacific Ocean assuming it take the densest packing structure with no air gaps?
Attempt: Post it is about .1m length and width, for a surface area of E-2
earth radius is 6 million meters, meaning surface area is about E15 m^2
pacific ocean is pretty big, about E14 at least
so E16 post its??
actual answer: Post-it area in m^2 = 0.00580644
Area of pacific ocean = 161.8 trillion m^2
161.8 trillion/0.00580644=2.7865611e+16
Re: Fermi Questions C
Posted: May 24th, 2017, 10:18 pm
by Raleway
NeilMehta wrote:
NeilMehta wrote:
Raleway wrote:How many post-its would be required to cover the entire Pacific Ocean?
CHALLENGE: How many post-its would be required to fill the entire Pacific Ocean assuming it take the densest packing structure with no air gaps?
Attempt: Post it is about .1m length and width, for a surface area of E-2
earth radius is 6 million meters, meaning surface area is about E15 m^2
pacific ocean is pretty big, about E14 at least
so E16 post its??
actual answer: Post-it area in m^2 = 0.00580644
Area of pacific ocean = 161.8 trillion m^2
161.8 trillion/0.00580644=2.7865611e+16
))