To do this, you need a few important pieces of information: The diameter of the Deep Water Horizon oil pipe is 21 inches. The oil stream emanating from the pipe exits at about 21 inches per second. 12 x 12 x 12 = 1728 cubic inches = 1 cubic foot. To find the cross-section of the pipe, you need to know that the area of a circle is: A = πr^2 Answer the following questions: Convert cu ft/day to barrels/day (5.61 cu ft/barrel of oil): _________________________ bbl/day (Note: bbl is the abbreviation for ‘barrels’) Multiply bbl/day x 86 days: _________________________________= total barrels of oil leaked. Calculate the gallons of oil leaked: ___________________________= total gallons of oil leaked.(There are 42 U.S. gallons in a barrel of oil.)
The "Tragedy of the Commons" played out for all between 20 April and 15 July 2010. On 20 April 2010 (ironically, Earth Day), the Deep Water Horizon drilling vessel in the Gulf of Mexico suffered a catastrophic blow-out and explosion resulting in the loss of 11 men and ultimately the loss of the $540 million dollar vessel. Loss of control of the oil well permitted oil to flow freely into the Gulf of Mexico for 86 days. It stands today one of the largest oil spills in history.
Your task is to estimate the quantity of oil that leaked from the Deep Water Horizon well between 20 April and 15 July 2011. I hope you will be surprised to discover that reasonable estimates from a small quantity of available data are possible and reveal much about this "Tragedy of the Commons."
To do this, you need a few important pieces of information:
-
The diameter of the Deep Water Horizon oil pipe is 21 inches.
-
The oil stream emanating from the pipe exits at about 21 inches per second.
-
12 x 12 x 12 = 1728 cubic inches = 1 cubic foot.
-
To find the cross-section of the pipe, you need to know that the area of a circle is: A = πr^2
Answer the following questions:
- Convert cu ft/day to barrels/day (5.61 cu ft/barrel of oil): _________________________ bbl/day (Note: bbl is the abbreviation for ‘barrels’)
- Multiply bbl/day x 86 days: _________________________________= total barrels of oil leaked.
- Calculate the gallons of oil leaked: ___________________________= total gallons of oil leaked.(There are 42 U.S. gallons in a barrel of oil.)
Trending now
This is a popular solution!
Step by step
Solved in 3 steps
