- #1
Ivan92
- 201
- 3
Homework Statement
During heavy rain, a section of a mountainside measuring 2900 m horizontally, 1000 m up along the slope, and 2.6 m deep slips into a valley in a mud slide. Assume that the mud ends up uniformly distributed over a surface area of the valley measuring 820 m x 820 m and that the mass of a cubic meter of mud is 1900 kg. What is the mass (in kg) of the mud sitting above a 2.2 m^2 area of the valley floor?
2. Relevant material
I am assuming this is a triangular prism, so I am going to use the formula for volume:
V=Al=1/2(b)(h)(l)
I also got a hint: Convert km to m (all ready did that). Find the volume in m^3. Spread the volume over the given area. Find the depth. Find the volume over the given area. What is the corresponding mass?
The Attempt at a Solution
I don't even know if I am doing the volume right. The wording in the problem is confusing me. So I let b = 2900 m, h = 1000 m, and l = 2.6. Next part is to find m^3. So:
V= (1/2)(2900)(1000)(2.6) = (3.77*10^6) m^3
Next thing it says to do is to find the depth using given area. Given area = 6724 m^2 so:
(3.77*10^6) = (6724) (l); l = 560 m
Then to use that depth and the 2nd area to solve find m^3
V= (2.2) (560) = 1232 m^3.
Then to find the mass corresponding to the volume. I am kind of stumped at this step. I am not even sure if the work I did is even right. Can someone guide me in the right direction? Thanks in advance.