Discover new perspectives and gain insights with IDNLearn.com's diverse answers. Discover prompt and accurate answers from our experts, ensuring you get the information you need quickly.

Austin found that the volume of a tennis ball is 36 cubic cm. He has a cylindrical container with a radius of 6 cm and a
height of 20 cm. Will Austin be able to fit three tennis balls into the container? How do you know?


Sagot :

Answer:

  Yes, 3 balls will fit; the ball radius is smaller than the container radius, and the height is more than 4 times the ball diameter.

Step-by-step explanation:

We can compare the radius of a tennis ball to the radius and height of the cylinder to see if the balls will fit.

The volume of a sphere is given by ...

  V = 4/3πr³

Solving for radius, we find ...

  r = ∛(3V/(4π))

For the given ball volume of 36 cm³, the ball radius is found to be ...

  r = ∛(3·36/(4π)) = ∛(27/π) ≈ 2.05 . . . cm

The radius of the container is 6 cm, almost 3 times the radius of a ball, so we know 3 tennis balls will fit in one layer in the container. Actually, the attached figure shows that 5 tennis balls will fit in one layer in the container.

The height of the container, 20 cm, is almost 10 times the radius of the tennis ball, 5 times the diameter, so we can get at least 5×5 = 25 balls in the container.

_____

Additional comment

The height of the container is 20/(2·2.05) ≈ 4.88 times the diameter of the tennis ball. When spheres are packed, each layer after the first takes additional height of at most √3/2 ≈ 0.87 times the diameter of the sphere. That means we can pack 5 layers of tennis balls in the container and have room left over.

View image Sqdancefan