Fermi Questions Marathon

[hmcginny]

so yes the grand canyon is 4.17 trillion cubic meters, but that is 4E12 m^3 not E9. Then converting in cubics you need to remember to change for every dimension so its 4E18 cm^3 not E12. Making the answer around E18 because jelly beans are some where in the E0 cubic cm range. remember to post your own question afterwards.

[49ers]

so yes the grand canyon is 4.17 trillion cubic meters, but that is 4E12 m^3 not E9. Then converting in cubics you need to remember to change for every dimension so its 4E18 cm^3 not E12. Making the answer around E18 because jelly beans are some where in the E0 cubic cm range. remember to post your own question afterwards.

Yeah I screwed up on calculating that... It really would have helped if I knew the dimension stuff you mentioned.

Since we are talking about the Grand Canyon, how many drops of water would it take to fill in the Grand Canyon?

[3nv1r0nm3ntal ch3m]

Since the Grand Canyon is about 4E12 m^3 that is 4E18 mL. I'll guess that a drop of water is about 1/8 of an mL, I'd guess E17.

How many birthday candles would you need to burn consecutively (without having two burning at once) to keep a flame going for a thousand years?

[blue cobra]

I'd guess a birthday candle may burn for E2 minutes or so, and I'll call 1000 years about 5E8 minutes, so about 5E6 candles, assuming my assumptions aren't that atrocious.

How many cheeseburgers would you need to make a 1:1 scale replica of a T-rex?

[3nv1r0nm3ntal ch3m]

I would estimate that a cheeseburger is about 4E1 cm^3 and a t-rex is about 2E1 m^3 which is 2E7 cm^3, so that would give me 2E6 cheeseburgers, which seems like way to many...

How long would it take to watch all the videos on youtube?

[hmcginny]

so youtube has been around for like 6 or 7 years, which is E3 days, lets say +E3 videos per day so +E6 videos, which sounds about right. so each video is like -E1 minutes so E7 minutes for all the videos on youtube.

What is the probability that 10 randomly chosen people have the exact same birthday?

[quizbowl]

so youtube has been around for like 6 or 7 years, which is E3 days, lets say +E3 videos per day so +E6 videos, which sounds about right. so each video is like -E1 minutes so E7 minutes for all the videos on youtube.

What is the probability that 10 randomly chosen people have the exact same birthday?

Well 365 days a year (leap years are for squares) so each person has 1/365 chance of being on one particular day.
(1/365)^10 = 2ishE-26

How many facebook pokes occur daily around the world?

[hmcginny]

So there are maybe E9 people on facebook. each person probably sends around 1 poke a day, because there are people that never poke and people that have like 20 poke wars going on. so lets say E9.

How many sheets of paper would it take to cover the entire Washington Monument?

[nkprasad12]

8.5*11 = approx 2/3 square feet per paper.
Each side of the monument is 555*40 feet = 22200 feet.
4 sides = 88800 feet / 2/3 = approx 1.4 * 10^6. So E6.

How far does the earth travel, in meters, in one year, relative to the sun?

[3nv1r0nm3ntal ch3m]

I think i remember reading somewhere that the earth was 1.5E8 meters from the sun, so a circle with that radius would have a circumference of 2π1.5E8, or about E9

How many molecules do you expel from your body in an average sneeze?