As a contrast between the old and the modern and between the large and the
small, consider the following: In old rural England 1 hide (between 100 and
120 acres) was the area of land needed to sustain one family with a single
plough for one year. (An area of 1 acre is equal to \(4047 \mathrm{~m}^{2} .\) )
Also, 1 wapentake was the area of land needed by 100 such families. In quantum
physics, the cross-sectional area of a nucleus (defined in terms of the chance
of a particle hitting and being absorbed by it ) is measured in units of
barns, where 1 barn is \(1 \times 10^{-28} \mathrm{~m}^{2}\). (In nuclear
physics jargon, if a nucleus is "large," then shooting a particle at it is
like shooting a bullet at a barn door, which can hardly be missed.) What is
the ratio of 25 wapentakes to 11 barns?