91Ó°ÊÓ

The American physical chemist Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875-1946) proposed a unit of time called the jiffy. According to Lewis, 1 jiffy is the time it takes light to travel 1 centimeter. (a) If you perform a task in a jiffy, how long does it take in seconds? (b) How many jiffys are in 1 minute? Use the fact that the speed of light is approximately \(3.00 \times 10^{8} \mathrm{~m} / \mathrm{s}\).

Suppose \(1.0 \mathrm{~m}^{3}\) of oil is spilled into the ocean. Find the area of the resulting slick, assuming that it is one molecule thick and that each molecule occupies a cube \(0.50 \mu \mathrm{m}\) on a side.

The acceleration due to gravity is approximately \(9.81 \mathrm{~m} / \mathrm{s}^{2}\) (depending on your location). What is the acceleration due to gravity in centimeters per second squared?

Velocity can be related to acceleration and distance by the following equation: \(v^{2}=2 a x^{p}\). Find the power \(p\) that makes this equation dimensionally consistent.

Acceleration is related to distance and time by the following equation: \(a=2 x t^{p}\). Find the power \(p\) that makes this equation dimensionally consistent.

Give an order-of-magnitude estimate for the time in seconds of the following: (a) a year, (b) a baseball game, (c) a heartbeat, (d) the age of Earth, (e) your age.

Give an order-of-magnitude estimate for the length in meters of the following: (a) your height, (b) a fly, (c) a car, (d) a jetliner, (e) an interstate highway stretching from coast to coast.

The first several digits of \(\pi\) are known to be \(\pi=3.14159265358979 \ldots\). What is \(\pi\) to (a) three significant figures and (b) five significant figures?

What is the area of a circle of radius \(24.87 \mathrm{~m}\) ?

Give a ballpark estimate of the number of seats in a typical Major League ballpark (see Figure 1.15). Show your reasoning.