Use big numbers to estimate real-world puzzles, like fitting a whole city into buses.
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Put the steps for estimating a trip to the Sun in order.
Drag the steps into the correct logical order to solve the estimation problem.
Could all of Mumbai fit into buses?
Estu was amazed by facts about large numbers and came up with an unusual question: "Could the entire population of Mumbai fit into 1 lakh buses?"
While counting millions of people or physically lining up a lakh buses is impossible, we can solve this using simple math.
Break a huge question into smaller guesses you can multiply.
The first step in solving a massive real-world problem is to make a reasonable assumption based on everyday life. For example, if you don't know the exact capacity of a bus, it is safe to assume a standard city bus can hold about 50 people.
Three steps for estimating something huge.
Worked example: fitting Mumbai into buses.
Could the entire population of Mumbai fit into 1 lakh buses?
(Given: We know from our population tables that Mumbai's population is roughly 1 crore 24 lakhs, or 1,24,42,373).
The Titanic, and how many ships Mumbai would need.
The RMS Titanic carried about 2500 passengers. Estimating if a city fits requires multiplying that capacity by the number of ships.
Estimate how many Titanic-sized ships Mumbai would fill, with a worked start.
The RMS Titanic ship carried about passengers. To find out if the population of Mumbai can fit into 5000 such ships, we need to estimate the total capacity of the fleet. We do this by multiplying the capacity of one ship by the total number of ships. The total fleet capacity is 2500 × 5000 = . We know that Mumbai's population is roughly 1,24,42,373. Because the fleet's capacity is greater than the city's population, the answer to whether they can fit is .