Chapter 10, Problem 1RQ

1. 1. A history major of your acquaintance is studying agricultural commerce in nineteenth century Wales. He has encountered many references to “hobbits” of grain, and thinking that this must be some type of unit similar to a bushel (rather than a diminutive inhabitant of Middle Earth), he has sought your advice because he knows you are studying unit conversions in your engineering class.

He provides a worksheet containing yearly records for the total number of hobbits of three commodities sold by a Mr. Thomas between 1817 and 1824, and he has asked you to convert these to not only cubic meters, but also both U.S. and imperial bushels.

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M
1
2
3
4
5		Barley				Wheat				Oats
6	Year	Hobbits	Imp. Bushels	US Bushels	Cubic Meters	Hobbits	Imp. Bushels	US Bushels	Cubic Meters	Hobbits	Imp. Bushels	US Bushels	Cubic Meters
7	1817	105				154				203
8	1818	118				145				187
9	1819	98				167				167
10	1820	187				324				199
11	1821	102				105				210
12	1822	142				168				147
13	1823	93				132				168
14	1824	117				136				193
15
16		hobbits	Imp. Bushels	US Bushels	Cubic motors
17		1

After a little research, you find that the hobbit was equal to two and a half imperial bushels, the imperial bushel equals 2219 cubic inches, and the U.S. bushel equals 2150 cubic inches.

First, you create a table showing the conversion factors from hobbits to the other units, including comments documenting the conversion. You then use these calculated conversion factors to create the rest of the table.