How many people were at Obama's Inauguration? Try and Estimate using the picture below.
Lab Report
POW! 1: Inauguration Estimation
Problem Statement
In “Inauguration Estimation”, I am going to estimate the number of people at Obama’s Presidential Inauguration. I will estimate using a ruler, a dry erase marker, and a satellite image of the inauguration. I will also conduct a strategy in order to find a more accurate estimation. The goal of this lab is to estimate the total number of people at Obama’s Inauguration.
Process
Before I started, I discovered that the distance from the Capitol Building to the Washington Memorial was 1.2 miles and the distance from the Capitol to the World War II Memorial is 1.6 miles. Using that information, I first created a scale using the ruler and the Inauguration picture. Then I measured the distance from the front of the Capitol to the Washington Memorial using centimeters. The length from the Capitol to the Washington Memorial in the picture is 25 centimeters or 250 millimeters. The ratio from the picture to the actual lengths is 25 centimeters equals 1.2 miles. Next, I measured the diameter of the spaces where the people were standing. In total, there are 11 blobs of people. Blob 1 was 20 millimeters long, Blob 2 was 18 mm long, Blob 3 is 10 mm long, Blob 4 is 8 mm long, Blob 5 is 16 mm long, Blob 6 is 20 mm long, Blob 7 to 9 are all 16 mm long, Blob 10 is 18 mm long, and Blob 11 is 20 mm long. Then I found the area of all of the blobs of people. The total area of all of the spaces is 2119.5 square millimeters. I used the scale ratio from the beginning and converted my answer into square miles which equaled 10.2 square miles. Then I converted it miles into feet by multiplying my answer by 5280 or the number of feet in a mile. The total square feet of people was 53,856. Now that I had the total square feet of people, I had to find the total number of people in the crowd. I measured myself with a ruler and found that I take up around 1.5 square feet of space or 1 foot times a half a foot. I divided the total square feet of all of the people by the square feet of one person. The total was 35,904 people.
Solution
I estimated that the total number of people in the photograph is 35,904.
Reflection
I feel that my answer is too low of an answer in order to be correct. Next time, I would measure the space where there are people and where they will be in squares and not circles. I feel that this would make my calculations higher and my answer will be closer to the real number.
Problem Statement
In “Inauguration Estimation”, I am going to estimate the number of people at Obama’s Presidential Inauguration. I will estimate using a ruler, a dry erase marker, and a satellite image of the inauguration. I will also conduct a strategy in order to find a more accurate estimation. The goal of this lab is to estimate the total number of people at Obama’s Inauguration.
Process
Before I started, I discovered that the distance from the Capitol Building to the Washington Memorial was 1.2 miles and the distance from the Capitol to the World War II Memorial is 1.6 miles. Using that information, I first created a scale using the ruler and the Inauguration picture. Then I measured the distance from the front of the Capitol to the Washington Memorial using centimeters. The length from the Capitol to the Washington Memorial in the picture is 25 centimeters or 250 millimeters. The ratio from the picture to the actual lengths is 25 centimeters equals 1.2 miles. Next, I measured the diameter of the spaces where the people were standing. In total, there are 11 blobs of people. Blob 1 was 20 millimeters long, Blob 2 was 18 mm long, Blob 3 is 10 mm long, Blob 4 is 8 mm long, Blob 5 is 16 mm long, Blob 6 is 20 mm long, Blob 7 to 9 are all 16 mm long, Blob 10 is 18 mm long, and Blob 11 is 20 mm long. Then I found the area of all of the blobs of people. The total area of all of the spaces is 2119.5 square millimeters. I used the scale ratio from the beginning and converted my answer into square miles which equaled 10.2 square miles. Then I converted it miles into feet by multiplying my answer by 5280 or the number of feet in a mile. The total square feet of people was 53,856. Now that I had the total square feet of people, I had to find the total number of people in the crowd. I measured myself with a ruler and found that I take up around 1.5 square feet of space or 1 foot times a half a foot. I divided the total square feet of all of the people by the square feet of one person. The total was 35,904 people.
Solution
I estimated that the total number of people in the photograph is 35,904.
Reflection
I feel that my answer is too low of an answer in order to be correct. Next time, I would measure the space where there are people and where they will be in squares and not circles. I feel that this would make my calculations higher and my answer will be closer to the real number.