What is the total volume of hay in 1000 bales? Height?

Question

A farmer build a rectangular storage shed large enough to hold 1000 bales of hay. A bale of hay is 4 feet by 2 by 1 foot.

a) What is the total volume of hay in 1000 bales?

b) The base of the shed is 50 feet by 20 feet. What minimum shed height, floor to ceiling, allows the farmer to store 1000 bales?

Answer 1

Hi Sara,

 

a) volume = height x width x length so one bale is 4x2x1 = 8 cubic feet and 1000 bales would have 8000 cubic feet.

 

b) You can fit 5 bale lengths along the 20 feet side of the shed (20/4 = 5)

    You can fit 25 bale widths along the 50 foot side of the shed (50/2 = 25) for a total of 125 bales each one, one foot high. 

    1000/125 = 8 feet high

 

You can also fit 50 bale widths along the 50 foot side of the shed (50/1 = 50) for a total of 250 bales, each one 2 feet  high.

1000/250 = 4 bales going up from the floor, each one 2 feet high for a total of 8 feet again.

 

So the answer is 8 feet.

 

Dan