Question

Mature elephants consume an average of 600 pounds of food per day. If an elephant
matures by age 10 and lives to the age of 55 years, how many kilograms of food will it
eat, in megagrams, over the course of its adult life? (1 kg= 2.20 lb)

Answer 1

Answer:

$\large \boxed{\text{4 600 000 kg or 4600 Mg}}$

Explanation:

1. Calculate the adult life

If the elephant is an adult from its 10th birthday until the day before its 56th birthday, its  

Adult life = 55 - 10 + 1 = 46 yr

2. Convert years to days

$\text{Adult life} = \text{46 yr} \times \dfrac{\text{365.25 da}}{\text{1 yr}} = \text{16 800 da}$

3. Convert days to pounds of feed

$\text{Feed} = \text{16 800 da} \times \dfrac{\text{600 lb}}{\text{1 da}} = 1.01 \times 10^{7} \text{ lb}$

4. Convert pounds to kilograms and megagrams

$\text{Feed} =1.01 \times 10^{7} \text{ lb} \times \dfrac{\text{1 kg}}{\text{2.20 lb}} =\textbf{4 600 000 kg} = \textbf{4600 Mg}\\\\\text{The elephant will eat \large \boxed{\textbf{4 600 000 kg or 4600 Mg}} of food.}$

Note: The answer can have only two significant figures because that is all you gave for age of the elephant.