The Giant Soup Can

First: Figure out how many bikes can fit along the length of the water tank. I estimated around 2.5 bicycles would fit along the length of the water tank, just visually approximating.

Second: I measured the height and diameter of the soup can. Length = 4 inches and Diameter = 2.6 inches.

Third: I tried to approximate the length of the bike to try using average bike sizes. The average length I found was approximately 68 inches (http://pccsc.net/bicycle-parking-info/). 

Then I used ratios to determine the length and width of the water tank. 

• 68inches x 2.5 bicycles = 170

• Then using cross multiplication I set up a ratio - 170/4 inches=diameter of water tank/2.6 inches. So the diameter of the water tank equals 110.5 inches. 

So thus far I used can dimensions and related that to the approximation of the bicycle length to then find the unknown of the diameter of the water tank. 

The volume of the water tank is V=pi*r^2*(h). So the volume is equal to V=pi*((110.5inches/2)^2)*170inches = 1630284.347in^3. 

I then converted my volume to gallons and got approximately 7057 gallons of water in the water tank. I would imagine this is enough water to put out the average house fire. 

While doing this I my first thought was how to make a relationship with the values that I new of the soup can to the unknown dimensions of the water tank using the bike. I still feel and think very much like a student especially when being tasked to figure something out, so I do not think I had clear teacher vs student thoughts throughout this process. However I researched the values I could not approximate and I reasoned with my approximations and relating the values I had to each other. An extension I thought of was determining how many cans of Campbell's soup would fit into the water tank. I taught proportions during my short practicum so I think this would be a fun hands on, real life example where they could work to find an unknown. I would give the students a can to measure, and one of the dimensions of the water tank and then they would have to calculate the unknown using proportions. They would then be tasked to use what they know about the can and the tank to figure out how much soup could fit in the tank.