Question

A typical American household uses 150,000 gallons of water per year. A newspaper report says that about 0.3 gallons of water are used by an American household every minute. Which of these statements is correct about the information provided by the newspaper?
It is unreliable because it is half of the actual value.

It is unreliable because it is double the expected value.

It is reliable because it matches with the calculations made by scientists.

It is reliable because it is repeated before being published in newspapers.

Answer 1

Since there are 525,600 minutes in a non-leap year, you just need to multiply those with 0.3 to check how much water Americans spend according to the report. 
525,600 * 0.3 = 157,680

Having this in mind, I'd say the correct answer is the third option - it is reliable because it matches with the calculations made by scientists: 157,680 and 150,000 are pretty close.