Number 427 (Story #3), May 10, 1999 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein
FERMI QUESTIONS, named for the Enrico Fermi who reveled in the exercise, are problems that call upon the art of approximation. Example: How many liters of water are drunk in the US per year? Answer---10^11 liters (250 x 106 people times 1.5 liters of water per day times 365 days). How long would it take to walk the distance between Earth and Moon? 104 days (2.4 x 105 miles divided by 24 miles/day). The number of postage stamps covering a football field? 107 (stamp area of 4 cm2 over a field of 100 x 50 m2). (The Physics Teacher magazine, May 1999; contact columnist Karen Bouffard, at kbouff@aol.com.)
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