Re: gas tank problem

[Walt Mankowski <waltman@pobox.com>]

On Tue, Dec 10, 2002 at 12:36:42PM -0500, Jeff Weisberg wrote:
> I mis-understood then. I thought our gas-gauge was broken
> and we wanted to measure the amount of gas with a dipstick.
> 
> but we have a working gas-gauge, and want to use it
> to measure a stick of unknown length.

Um, no.  The gas gauge *is* broken.  All the driver has is a stick and
the diameter of the tank (20 inches).  He's trying to use the stick as
a dipstick to tell how much gas he has left in the tank.  He puts on
mark at 10", which he labels "1/2".  Where should he put the "1/4"
mark?

> so, you fix the one typo I made, and solve for "h" (or
> solve for "aprox. h" [1])
> 
> when the tank is 1/4 full, the mark on the stick is
> at just under 0.6*R

Interestingly enough, you came up with the right answer despite our
confusion on the actual question. :-)

Walt

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