Question

Antarctica is roughly semicircular with radius 2000 km. The average thickness of its ice cover is 3000 m. The volume of ice in cubic cm is the order of???

Answer 1

The volume of ice is given by the product of the semicircular surface area and the thickness. The area of the semicircle is A= r2/2, where ris the radius. Therefore, the volume is 22Vr zwhere zis the ice thickness. Since there are 103m in 1 km and 102cm in 1 m, we have 32510 m10 cm2000km200010cm.1km1mr   In these units, the thickness becomes 2210 cm3000m3000m300010cm1mzwhich yields 252223200010cm300010 cm1.910cm .2VFigure 1-5: Problem 9