Saturday, July 23, 2011

Canadian arithmetic

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3 comments:

Tecumseh said...

Sounds like your typical Rotter "\lesssim" estimates:

A litre of jet fuel weighs 0.803 kg, so the correct calculation was:

7682 litres × 0.803 = 6169 kg
22300 kg − 6169 kg = 16131 kg
16131 kg ÷ 0.803 = 20088 litres of fuel to be transferred

Between the ground crew and flight crew, however, they arrived at an incorrect conversion factor of 1.77, the weight of a litre of fuel in pounds. This was the conversion factor provided on the refueller's paperwork and which had always been used for the rest of the airline's imperial-calibrated fleet. Their calculation produced:

7682 litres × 1.77 = 13597 kg
22300 kg − 13597 kg = 8703 kg
8703 kg ÷ 1.77 = 4916 litres of fuel to be transferred

Instead of 22,300 kg of fuel, they had 22,300 pounds on board — only a little over 10,000 kg, or less than half the amount required to reach their destination.

7/23/2011 10:53 AM
Arelcao Akleos said...

Hey, the order of magnitude was right, whaddyawant from der Rotter?

7/23/2011 10:59 AM
Tecumseh said...

I feel very confident knowing that Herr Rott is at the wheel. Not.

7/23/2011 11:02 AM

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