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math

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ohiojim

Well-known Member
they say 5 out of 4 people struggle with math. i'm one. i have a fuel tank that measures 38 inches in diameter X 60 inches long, i have 15 inches of fuel. how many gallons are there ??? fuel guy has a stick that's graduated, but he's not here.
 
You've got 148 US gallons. There are 231 cubic inches in a US gallon, so the volume of the tank in cubic inches, divided by 231 will give you gallons. unc
 
Sorry Ohiojim, I jumped the gun and didn't allow for the tank being round. Without my handy-dandy tank manual, it's pretty close to 70 gallons.
 
Makes a difference if the ends are square or rounded, also is this a vertical or horizontal tank?

The correct answer is not quite enough.
 
(quoted from post at 21:21:14 09/07/19) they say 5 out of 4 people struggle with math. i'm one. i have a fuel tank that measures 38 inches in diameter X 60 inches long, i have 15 inches of fuel. how many gallons are there ??? fuel guy has a stick that's graduated, but he's not here.
Click to expand...
The area of a circle is pie are squared, so, 19 times 19 times 3.14 equals 1133.54 square inches. Times 15 is 17003 cubic inches divided by 231 is 73.6 gallons. This is a rough guess because you didn't mention if 38 inches is inside diameter or outside diameter.
 
(quoted from post at 22:29:07 09/07/19)
(quoted from post at 21:21:14 09/07/19) they say 5 out of 4 people struggle with math. i'm one. i have a fuel tank that measures 38 inches in diameter X 60 inches long, i have 15 inches of fuel. how many gallons are there ??? fuel guy has a stick that's graduated, but he's not here.
Click to expand...
The area of a circle is pie are squared, so, 19 times 19 times 3.14 equals 1133.54 square inches. Times 15 is 17003 cubic inches divided by 231 is 73.6 gallons. This is a rough guess because you didn't mention if 38 inches is inside diameter or outside diameter.
Click to expand...

I should have mentioned this assumes the tank is standing up not laying on it's side.
 
OK, I'm going to assume the tank is laying on its side, so the circular ends are vertical. I could look up the formula, or maybe use calculus (if I could remember any of it), but this is a case where you can reasonably estimate without a lot of fancy math.

So the circular cross section is &pi;r<sup>2</sup> = 3.14 x 19<sup>2</sup> = 1134 in<sup>2</sup>

But it's only filled to 15 inches, which is fairly close to the 19 inch radius. If it was half full, the cross section would be 1/2 of 1134, or 567 square inches.

But since it's less than half full, we have to subtract the cross sectional area between the fuel level and the half-full level. This is where we cheat: Since the curvature of the tank is almost vertical at this point, we can pretend that area is a rectangle 38 inches wide by 4 inches high. (It's actually a bit less than that.) 38 x 4 = 152 in<sup>2</sup>

So the cross sectional area up to the fuel level is 567 - 152 = 415 square inches.

The total volume is the cross sectional area times the length of the cylinder: 415 x 60 = 24,900 in<sup>3</sup>

Converting to gallons: 24,900 in<sup>3</sup> x .00433 gal/in<sup>3</sup> = 108 gallons

About 110 gallons, I'd say. Note that this method only works when the tank is close to half full.
 
Thomas Edison use to use a similar question for young people who wanted to work for him. The ones he hired didn't use math but drained the liquid out and measured it that way......just saying I am one of the 4 out of 5
 
thanks guys, i was wondering if i could pick it up, might be a little hard to handle with that much fuel in it.
 
(quoted from post at 13:21:14 09/07/19) they say[b:f340c9d77e] 5 out of 4[/b:f340c9d77e] people struggle with math. i'm one. i have a fuel tank that measures 38 inches in diameter X 60 inches long, i have 15 inches of fuel. how many gallons are there ??? fuel guy has a stick that's[b:f340c9d77e] graduated[/b:f340c9d77e], but he's not here.
Click to expand...

IF 5 out of 4 struggle, does that mean four are okay but one has 200% as much trouble?

What degree does the stick have? ( a Mass-stirrer's degree?)

Is the fuel guy traveling on train A to point B at a rate of 40mph?
 
shouldn't matter which way, volume inside is same. cubic inches/feet don't care how they are positioned.
 
(quoted from post at 21:56:21 09/07/19) shouldn't matter which way, volume inside is same. cubic inches/feet don't care how they are positioned.
Click to expand...

If the tank was full, that would be a true statement. Using just rough calculations, compare these two drawings:
1. 38"d x 60"l -- means that the tank is roughly 40% full:
15/38=0.3947%

2. 38"d x 60"h -- means that the tank is roughly 25% full:
15/60=0.25%

mvphoto42237.jpg


There are several variables that were not included with the OP:
1. Is the tank vertical or horizontal? I asked that question because a LOT of times I see items for sale with measurements that are given incorrectly; ie., it may be listed as l (length) when it should be listed as h (height).

2. Is the tank actually round, or is 38" simply the circumference? Again, I see that mistake made often.

3. Are the ends flat, or are they convex?

4. Are the measurements internal or external? If external, what's the wall thickness? Is the wall thickness even on all sides?

5. Are there any bladders or other items inside the tank that take up space, such as with a water well's pressure tank? This being a fuel tank, there are likely not any bladders inside. BUT, I don't know if ALL fuel tanks would be bladder-free.

6. How precisely was the remaining fuel/liquid measured? If off by even 1/8", that would affect the final measurement....depending on how precise of a measurement you wish to have.

Along with that last thought, was the tank perfectly level when measured?
 
my tank book says that you have a 300 gallon tank.
horizontal 15 inches = 108 gallons
vertical 15 inches = 74 gallons
the weight of diesel is about 7.2 lbs/gal. #2 heating oil is about 8.2 lbs/gal
HTH, Jf
 

Arg! Brain-dead again. When I figured percentages, I was thinking cylinder on the vertical, but rectangle on the horizontal. It's still different amounts, but.... :roll: :oops:
 
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