Question

You work for a landscape company. You are told to fill a 20 foot diameter flower bed with mulch 6 inches deep. You calculate that it will take about 1,885 ft3 to fill the flower bed.

Answer 1

The flower bed has the shape of a cylinder with a 20-ft diameter and a 6-inch height.

6 in. = 0.5 ft

Volume of cylinder = pi * r^2 * h

diameter = 20 ft
radius = 10 ft

V = 3.14 * (10 ft)^2 * 0.5 ft

V = 157 ft^3

1885 ft^3 is incorrect because the 6-in. depth, which is the height of the cylinder, was not converted to ft.