A technician is inspecting a fire sprinkler system. The water tank is spherical with a diameter of 5.5 feet. How much water does the tank hold?

(One cubic foot is about 7.48 gallons. Use 3.14 for pi.)
Formula Sheet
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1 point
651.3 gallons
696.6 gallons
710.4 gallons
976.9 gallons

1 answer

To find out how much water the spherical tank holds, we need to calculate the volume of the sphere and then convert that volume from cubic feet to gallons.

  1. First, we need the radius of the sphere. The diameter is given as 5.5 feet, so the radius \( r \) is half of that:

\[ r = \frac{5.5}{2} = 2.75 \text{ feet} \]

  1. The volume \( V \) of a sphere is given by the formula:

\[ V = \frac{4}{3} \pi r^3 \]

Using \( \pi \approx 3.14 \):

\[ V = \frac{4}{3} \times 3.14 \times (2.75)^3 \]

  1. Now, calculate \( (2.75)^3 \):

\[ (2.75)^3 = 2.75 \times 2.75 \times 2.75 = 20.796875 \text{ cubic feet} \]

  1. Now substituting back into the volume formula:

\[ V = \frac{4}{3} \times 3.14 \times 20.796875 \]

Calculating this step by step:

\[ \frac{4}{3} \times 3.14 \approx 4.18666667 \] \[ V \approx 4.18666667 \times 20.796875 \approx 87.0554451 \text{ cubic feet} \]

  1. Now, to convert cubic feet to gallons, we use the conversion factor \( 1 \text{ cubic foot} \approx 7.48 \text{ gallons} \):

\[ \text{Gallons} = 87.0554451 \times 7.48 \approx 651.3 \text{ gallons} \]

Therefore, the tank holds approximately 651.3 gallons.

The answer is: 651.3 gallons.