It takes a hose 2 minutes to fill a rectangular aquarium 9 inches long, 12 inches wide, and 14 inches tall.

Question

It takes a hose 2 minutes to fill a rectangular aquarium 9 inches long, 12 inches wide, and 14 inches tall. How long will it take the same hose to fill an aquarium measuring 29 inches by 30 inches by 32 inches?

The answer has to be to the nearest minute.

Answer 1

First, what do we know:

It takes 2 minutes to fill aquarium A

Aquarium A dimensions are 9 inches long by 12 inches wide by 14 inches tall.

Aquarium B dimensions are 29 inches long by 30 inches wide by 32 inches tall

What do we want to know: How long with it take to fill Aquarium B?

What we need to do:

Assume the fill rate from the hose will remain constant.

Calculate the fill rate of Aquarium A in two steps:

Step 1: Calculate the volume of Aquarium A

The equation for volume is w x l x h

So the volume is 9 in x12 in x 14 in = 1512 cubic inches

Step 2: Calculate the fill rate of Aquarium A

Fill rate = Volume/Time

Fill rate - 1512 cubic inches / 2 minutes = 756 cubic inches/minute.

Now that we know the fill rate, we can calculate the time to fill Aquarium B in two steps.

Step 1: Calculate the volume of Aquarium B

The equation for volume is w x l x h

So the volume is 29 in x 30 in x 32 in = 27,840 cubic inches

Step 2: Calculate the time to fill Aquarium B

The equation is : Time = Volume/Fill Rate

So the time is: Time =27,840 cubic inches / 756 cubic inches/minute = 36.8 minutes