3. Enrico Fermi gave an easy rough computation of the circumference of the earth

Question

3. Enrico Fermi gave an easy rough computation of the circumference of the earth using the method below (which was slightly modified from the original): (+1)A. How many time zones do you pass through when you fly from New York to Los Angeles? (+1) B. Fermi assumed there were about 3000 miles between New York and Los Angeles. If you accept this, how many miles per time zone are there? (+1) C. How many time zones must there be on the earth, if you assume all time zones are similar to those in the United States? (+1) D. Based on this, what is the circumference of the earth? (+2)E. Give two flaws of this method

Explanation / Answer

Ans(A):
3 time zones.

Ans(B):
3000/3= 1000 miles per time zone.

Ans(C):
We know that there are 24 hours in a day so there will be 24 time zones.

Ans(D):
circumference of earth = 24 time zones x 1000 miles per time zone = 24000 miles

Ans(E):
Two flaws are as folows:
1) distance for each time zone may not be same like some may be flat while other can have mountains.
In that case lenght for each will be different.

2) this method will not give exact value of circumference earth.

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