U.10 Engineering Overview

Day 04 - Spreadsheets & Factor-Label Method

Today we're going to get back into solving factor-label method problems (dimensional analysis) but we're going to use Google Sheets to do all the heavy lifting. Create a template in Google sheets (in your individual folder) and create formulae to calculate the answers to the following ten questions.

  1. Calculate the cost of gasoline for a 420 mile trip if your car averages 20 miles/gal of gas, and the gas costs $0.95/gallon. (Hint: set up problem to convert miles into dollars.)
  2. A TUMS antacid tablet weighs 1.265 g, most of which is filler. Each tablet contains 500 mg of the active ingredient, calcium carbonate.
    1. What is the percent, by weight, of calcium carbonate, in each tablet?
    2. What weight of calcium carbonate is needed to make 50 tablets?
    3. How many tablets can be made from 15.0 g of calcium carbonate?
  3. If 6.6% of a class earns A's, how many A's are earned in a class of 92 students?
  4. A steer when slaughtered weighs 980.0 pounds. The weight of the meat prepared for sale is 590.0 pounds. What percent of the weight is lost?
  5. A person planned to spend $30.00 per week on food. If you should not spend more than 20.0% of your take-home pay on food, what should be his minimum weekly take-home pay?
  6. A mixture contains 2.5 grams of ingredient A, 44.0 grams of B, and 8.5 grams of C. Calculate the percent of ingredient C.
  7. A sample of coal was found to contain 15.0% moisture (water).
    1. One ton of coal would contain ? pounds of water. (1 ton = 2000 lb).
    2. 1.00 kg. of this coal would contain ? grams of water.
  8. Rust is a compound which is 70.7 % iron, and the rest is oxygen.
    1. How many grams of oxygen are there in 680 grams of rust?
    2. How many grams of rust would contain 52.0 g of iron?
  9. A food processing company wants each batch of ketchup to contain 70.0% tomatoes by weight. How many lb. of peeled tomatoes are needed to make 200 lb of ketchup?
  10. An ore sample weighing 8.60 grams is found to contain 1.40 grams of copper.
    1. Calculate the percent copper in the ore
    2. How many lbs. of copper are there in 2.00 tons of ore?*
    3. What weight of the ore (in lb) would contain exactly 1.00 lb of copper?