A billion is difficult number for us to comprehend. If we travelled back in time to a billion seconds ago it would be 1981. The universe has about a 100 billion galaxies each with on average about a 100 billion stars. That number is so big that it is more than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of our planet.
McDonalds announced that they had sold a 100 billion burgers. Neil Tyson de Grasse puts that astonishing number into perspective in this short clip: 100 billion burgers
The question now is, is his Math correct and are his figures accurate?
Post your response in the comments section. Show how you worked it out. (Imagine a burger is about 10 cm. The circumference of the earth is about 40,000km. The distance to the moon is 384,000 km. 1 metre is a 100 centimetres. 1 kilometre is a 1000 metres.)
15 comments:
Well if you take 40,000 km and convert it to centimeters you get 4,000,000 centimeters.Now divide that by 10cm and you get 400,000 burgers, if i'm correct, the distance to the moon being 384,000km requires a stack of approximately 3,840,000 burgers. Multiply that by 400,000 stacks and you get 1.53600000 and goes on for about 12 more digits. Therefore I would say his math is about correct, though it is unbelievable that the past couple of generations have consumed and still are consuming THAT many burgers. It's simply mind-blowing!
Also, just had to point out that the video took place in Vegas, just saying :P
Umm... Sabrina, I'm not so sure about your calculations :)
Im NOT sure about mine either :p
40,000 into m 4,000,000 then into cm 4,000,000,000
divide by 10 (Size of the burger)
which is 400,000,000 X 52 (around the earth)
= 20,800,000,000
Then the distance to the moon
384 000 km into cm 38 400 000 000 X 2 (up and down) 76 800 000 000 divide by 10
= 76 800 000 00
20,800,000,000 + 76,800,000,00
Amount of burgers which is needed for the 'trip' :p = 28,480,000,000
and there's still some left!
Okay. Okay. Time to put my Core Math skills into practice and fail miserably!
Alright, so you have 100 billion burgers, 10cm each.
100 billion = 100000000000.
10 x 100000000000 = 1000000000000 cm worth of burgers.
40,000 km = 4000000000 cm.
1000000000000/4000000000 = 250cm.
...
wait, what? Okay let's try that again.
4000000000 x 10 = 40000000000.
nonono argh i'm confusing myself. SIR YOU ARE AWFUL. Okay, again.
Wait. Actually.
1000000000000 - 40000000000 = 960000000000.
...960 billion? But that's more than- stupid Neiha.
*60000000000.
So you still have 60 billion burgers to go, apparently. Or was that 60 billion cm worth of burgers...?
Shoot. We'll go with 6 billion burgers then and 60 bil. cms worth of burgers.
Distance to the moon = 38,400,000 cm.
Distance left to be covered by burgers = 60,000,000,000 cm.
Oh my god, WE NEED TO STOP EATING SO MANY BURGERS.
DistanceMoon/DistanceLeft = 1562.5 cm.
...eh? What? OKAY ONE MORE TIME.
DistanceMoon - DistanceLeft = 59961600000.
...
Kill me now.
Okay. You know what. You win, sir. You have successfully made me wallow in my lack of mathematical skills. I have a headache now.
Consensus:
People need to stop eating so many burgers just so math can be easier for people like Neiha who are awful at it. I'm going to go stare at something non-mathematical now.
100,000,000,000 burgers, 10cm each.
100,000,000,000*10=
1,000,000,000,000cm.(distance that can be covered by 100,000,000,000 burgers in cm.)
1km= 100,000cm.
1,000,000,000,000/100,000= 10,000,000km.(distance that can be covered by 100,000,000,000 burgers in km).
40,000*52= 2,080,000km(distance covered by burgers when laid around the earth 52 times.)
384,000*2= 768,000km (distance covered by burgers when stacked to the moon and back).
2,080,000+768,000= 2,848,000km= 2,848,000*100,000 = 284,800,000,000cm (total distance covered by burgers when laid around the earth 52 times and stacked to the moon and back).
If my calculations are right, winding burgers of 10cm 52 times around the Earth and stacking them to the moon and back will cover 284,800,000,000 cm or 2,848,000km while 100,000,000,000 burgers can cover a total distance of 1,000,000,000,000cm or 10,000,000km.
Therefore, number of burgers needed to cover this journey: 284,800,000,000/10= 28,480,000,000burgers.
Burgers left after completing journey: 100,000,000,000-28,480,000,000= 71,520,000,000 burgers.
This means that if my calculations are correct, even after all this, many more burgers will still be left. Whoa!!
Aisha Bashir.
11g2.
-100,000,000,000 hamburgers.
1) Around the world 52 times
-burger = 10cm
-circumference of the Earth = 40,000km
-4,000,000,000cm x 52 = 208,000,000,000cm
-208,000,000,000cm / 10cm = 20,800,000,000 burgers
2) To the moon and back
- burger = 10cm
- distance to moon = 384,000km
-38,400,000,000cm x 2 = 76,800,000,000 cm
- 76,800,000,000cm / 10cm = 7,680,000,000 burgers
No of burgers left = 100,000,000,000 - (20,800,000,000 + 7,680,000,000) = 71,520,000,000 burgers
Therefore, his math isn't exactly accurate, unless mine is wrong, since there are still 71.52 billion burgers leftover. WOW!
^ Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist at the prestigious American Museum of Natural History and Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space.
He's obviously not infallible, but if it were me, I'd think twice before saying his Maths is wrong.
Aisha, I think you started off on the right track.
Ummm, don't we need the height of an average burger to do the stacking bit to the moon?
Just asking, because otherwise i'm getting 249.999808 for the number of times around the earth, which is wrong!
Gosh! This has got to be a lot.
10cm -> burger
40,000 -> circumference of the Earth
384,000 -> distance to the moon
100,000,000,000*10 = 1,000,000,000,000cm
40,000*100 = 4,000,000m
4,000,000*1000 = 4,000,000,000cm
4,000,000,000*52 = 208,000,000,000cm
that's the distance in centimeters around the Earth (52 times)
384,000*100 = 38,400,000m
38,400,000*1000 = 38,400,000,000cm
38,400,000,000*2 = 76,800,000,000cm
that's the distance in centimeters up to the moon and back to the Earth
76,800,000,000 + 208,000,000,000 = 284,800,000,000cm
therefore, 1,000,000,000,000 - 284,800,000,000 = 17,252cm (left after going 52 times around the Earth and to the moon and back to the Earth)
So YES, Neil Tyson de Grasse's Math is correct and so are his figures.
P.S. sir, the length of the burgers are 10cm but the width of the burgers are way less. So, more burgers will be taken to reach to the moon, since you are stacking them up...
Im not so sure about my calculations but im guessing it's common sense so i thunk it's right.
First, convert 40,000km into cm and you get 4,000,000,000cm (distance around the world). Then divide by 10 (Size of the burger) which is 400,000,000 X 52
= 20,800,000,000
Then the distance to the moon
384,000 km into cm 38,400,000,000 X 2 (up to the moon then back down) 76 800 000 000 divide by 10
= 7,680,000,000
20,800,000,000 + 7,680,000,000
= 28,480,000,000
and there's about 71,520,000,000 burgers left!
SHOCKER :O
Ratio
1 Burger:10cm
4000,000,00 Burgers: 4000,000,000cm
52 times Around the World=208,000,000,00 B*:208000,000,000cm
Now the Moon=
768,000,000,0 B*:768,000,000,00cm
.
. . 7680000000+400000000=
2848000,000,0
100,000,000,000-28,480,000,000= 71,520,000,000 burgers Left and yet to be eaten.
Poor Cows :(
I hate Maths. :<
EXCELLENT WORK GIRISHA! Your calculations were logical and spot on.
thank u sir :D
Im no good at math, so I'm not going to bother embarrassing myself here, but I just wanted to say HOLY COW that's a lot of burgers!
WOW! It takes us days to fly to the moon while going thousands of kilometres per hour, that just shows the distance. And if you cover that distance with burgers after going around the world 52 times then clearly, we under-estimate the numbers.
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