The Berliner Lecture Room (PSB 180) at Bryn Mawr College is
approximately 42.8 feet long by 26.3 feet wide by 11.6 feet tall.
This room is filled with cubic blocks. Each block is 0.75 cm/side and
has a mass of 15 grams. The room is filled with blocks. What would
be the total mass of the blocks required to fill the room (assume
partial blocks may be obtained).
You may be thinking...
What was expected?
Should the result be a larger or smaller number relative to the
size of the given dimensions?
Is the result physically meaningful?
The volume of the room is calculated to be 3.70x108
cm3.
The number of blocks required to fill the room is
8.8x108 blocks.
The mass of these blocks is 1.3x1010 g.
Since the Berliner room is a large lecture room a large number is
expected.
Since the volume of each block is less than 1 cm3
a larger number of blocks (than the volume of the
room) is expected.
Since the mass of each block is greater than 1 gram, an even
larger result is expected for the total mass.
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