SOLUTION: Problem: A basement has a 24-foot by 32 -foot rectangular floor. The basement is flooded with water to a depth of 18 inches. Three pumps are used to pump the water out of the ba

Question 70666: Problem: A basement has a 24-foot by 32 -foot rectangular floor. The basement is flooded with water to a depth of 18 inches. Three pumps are used to pump the water out of the basement. Each pump will pump 8 gallons of water per minute. If a cubic foot of water contains 7.5 gallons, how many minutes will it take to pump all of the water out of the basement using the three pumps?
What I have done: I found the volume to be 165,888ft^3. Do I set up a ratio of gallons/m to something? Do something with the 7.5 gall to ft^3? Find out how much each pump could pump and add?
Help!
Thanks for your time,
Charlene

Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Hmmm...I wonder how you found the volume of water in the basement to be 165,888 cu.ft.?
The volume is given by Length X Width X depth(of water)
Length = 32 ft.
Width = 24 ft.
Depth = 18 inches = 1.5 ft.
Volume = 32 X 24 X 1.5 = 1152 cu.ft. of water. Right?
To compute the number of gallons, using 7.5 gallons per cubic foot, multiply the number of cubic feet of water (1152) by the number of gallons per cubic foot (7.5) and you get 8640 gallons of water.
Now if the three pumps are all working together and each one pumps 8 gallons per minute, then the three of them together will pump (8 X 3 = 24) 24 gallons per minute.
To find the time it takes to empty the basement, divide the number of gallons of water in the basement (8640 gallons) by the rate at which the water is being pumped out by the three pumps (24 gals/min).
8640 gals./24 gals/min = 360 mins.
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