# i am stumped about volume of a ship hunted whales ....

#### btimofte100

##### New member
Hi all
I have the problem

"A ship has 23 000 metric tonnes and goes whale hunting . Equipment and materials occupy 4800 cubic meters and the crew 1/6 of the equipment and materials . Whats the volume of the hunted whales if one metric tonne has capacity of 283 cubic meters ?"

The book says 909 cubic meters as answer but i have no CLUE how did they get to this value

Is there a error in the book or the answer is correct ?

Last edited:

#### Subhotosh Khan

##### Super Moderator
Staff member
Hi all
I have the problem

"A ship has 23 000 metric tonnes and goes whale hunting . Equipment and materials occupy 4800 cubic meters and the crew 1/6 of this . Whats the volume of the hunted whales if one metric tonne has capacity of 283 cubic meters ?"

The book says 909 cubic meters as answer but i have no CLUE how did they get to this value

Is there a error in the book or the answer is correct ?
Is it the EXACT problem statement? You write:

"...and the crew 1/6 of this"

What is "this" referring to?

#### btimofte100

##### New member
Is it the EXACT problem statement? You write:

"...and the crew 1/6 of this"

What is "this" referring to?
Hi

I have corrected now to be more clear

#### Dr.Peterson

##### Elite Member
Hi all
I have the problem

"A ship has 23 000 metric tonnes and goes whale hunting . Equipment and materials occupy 4800 cubic meters and the crew 1/6 of the equipment and materials . Whats the volume of the hunted whales if one metric tonne has capacity of 283 cubic meters ?"

The book says 909 cubic meters as answer but i have no CLUE how did they get to this value

Is there a error in the book or the answer is correct ?
Are you translating from another language? Even if you are, please quote the original wording, exactly and completely. The part you corrected makes no sense at all; how can the crew occupy 1/6 of the equipment and materials?? If you mean the crew occupies 1/6 as much space as the equipment and materials take up, that can be reasonable.

But the problem as a whole is still entirely unclear. Weight and capacity are different things, and you can only relate them with regard to a substance with a known density (that of whales? wood? air in the hold?). Does the ship itself weigh 23 000 metric tonnes, or is it allowed to carry that much weight, or what? Are "the hunted whales" the ones they will be able to take home, or all the whales of their species in the ocean?

I've tried to find a way to interpret the problem that yields any sensible result, much less the answer you give, and I can't.

#### firemath

##### Full Member
What does "A ship has" mean?

I am very slow to call a book wrong. Could we see the original problem through a picture?

#### Dr.Peterson

##### Elite Member
"A ship has 23 000 metric tonnes and goes whale hunting . Equipment and materials occupy 4800 cubic meters and the crew 1/6 of the equipment and materials . Whats the volume of the hunted whales if one metric tonne has capacity of 283 cubic meters ?"

The book says 909 cubic meters as answer but i have no CLUE how did they get to this value
I do see that if we convert 23 (not 23 000) metric tonnes to cubic meters using the claimed conversion factor of 283 cubic meters per metric tonne, we get 23*283 = 6509 cubic meters; and if this is supposed to be the total capacity, we can subtract the 4800 cubic meters and an additional 1/6 of that, 800, to get 6509-4800-800 = 909 cubic meters left for the whales. But that's assuming both an error in a number, and a uniform density of whale, equipment, and crew space, which makes no sense to me.

But, yes, it's conceivable that the original problem says something that would make sense of this. I do want to see what it actually says, either as an image or (if we will need to translate from a language with a different script) something copyable.

#### btimofte100

##### New member
I do see that if we convert 23 (not 23 000) metric tonnes to cubic meters using the claimed conversion factor of 283 cubic meters per metric tonne, we get 23*283 = 6509 cubic meters; and if this is supposed to be the total capacity, we can subtract the 4800 cubic meters and an additional 1/6 of that, 800, to get 6509-4800-800 = 909 cubic meters left for the whales. But that's assuming both an error in a number, and a uniform density of whale, equipment, and crew space, which makes no sense to me.

But, yes, it's conceivable that the original problem says something that would make sense of this. I do want to see what it actually says, either as an image or (if we will need to translate from a language with a different script) something copyable.
Hello Dr.P.
I have added now to full text (Romanian)

#### Dr.Peterson

##### Elite Member
Thanks. I put that into Google to see if it suggests any different translation, and it says,

A 23,000 t ship goes whaling. The necessary equipment and materials occupy 4,800 m.c., and the crew one-sixth of the equipment and materials. What volume can the game occupy, if 1 t has a capacity of 283 m.c.?​

That generally agrees with your translation,

A ship has 23 000 metric tonnes and goes whale hunting . Equipment and materials occupy 4800 cubic meters and the crew 1/6 of the equipment and materials . Whats the volume of the hunted whales if one metric tonne has capacity of 283 cubic meters ?​

It does clarify the "ship has", though it leaves unanswered whether the tonnage of a ship means its own weight, or the cargo it can carry. (I understand that it can mean either, but here it must mean the latter.) It also makes it clear that it is asking for the maximum amount of whales that will fit. But my two objections still stand. I think you just have to accept that the problem doesn't fully make sense.

#### btimofte100

##### New member
Thanks. I put that into Google to see if it suggests any different translation, and it says,

A 23,000 t ship goes whaling. The necessary equipment and materials occupy 4,800 m.c., and the crew one-sixth of the equipment and materials. What volume can the game occupy, if 1 t has a capacity of 283 m.c.?​

That generally agrees with your translation,

A ship has 23 000 metric tonnes and goes whale hunting . Equipment and materials occupy 4800 cubic meters and the crew 1/6 of the equipment and materials . Whats the volume of the hunted whales if one metric tonne has capacity of 283 cubic meters ?​

It does clarify the "ship has", though it leaves unanswered whether the tonnage of a ship means its own weight, or the cargo it can carry. (I understand that it can mean either, but here it must mean the latter.) It also makes it clear that it is asking for the maximum amount of whales that will fit. But my two objections still stand. I think you just have to accept that the problem doesn't fully make sense.
Ok , that looks and the problem is solved !

#### GeneralSynopsis

##### New member
Thanks. I put that into Google to see if it suggests any different translation, and it says,

A 23,000 t ship goes whaling. The necessary equipment and materials occupy 4,800 m.c., and the crew one-sixth of the equipment and materials. What volume can the game occupy, if 1 t has a capacity of 283 m.c.?​

That generally agrees with your translation,

A ship has 23 000 metric tonnes and goes whale hunting . Equipment and materials occupy 4800 cubic meters and the crew 1/6 of the equipment and materials . Whats the volume of the hunted whales if one metric tonne has capacity of 283 cubic meters ?​

It does clarify the "ship has", though it leaves unanswered whether the tonnage of a ship means its own weight, or the cargo it can carry. (I understand that it can mean either, but here it must mean the latter.) It also makes it clear that it is asking for the maximum amount of whales that will fit. But my two objections still stand. I think you just have to accept that the problem doesn't fully make sense.
These are not metric tons/tonnes, but net registered tons (or net tons) which are units of available volume for cargo. 1 net ton is $$100ft^3 \approx 2.83 m^3$$

#### Dr.Peterson

##### Elite Member
These are not metric tons/tonnes, but net registered tons (or net tons) which are units of available volume for cargo. 1 net ton is $$100ft^3 \approx 2.83 m^3$$
Thanks. I had searched for information about how tonnage is measured and saw that some usages actually measure volume, but didn't run across the number 283 in any form to confirm that.

And there are still some issues with the problem!

#### btimofte100

##### New member
I think as long as we got the correct answer everything is fine . I will move to the next problems