Question

"4.57 billion years of geologic time with a roll of masking tape so that 1 inch represents 1 million years, how long would the tape have to be" (ludman 20)ludman, allan. laboratory manual for introductory geology (third edition), 3rd edition. w. w. norton & company, 20150306. vitalbook file.

Answer 1

The correct answer is - 4570 inches.

If a geological time of 4.57 billion years is represented with a roll of masking tape, where one inch will represent one million years of geological time, we can come to the result in a very easy manner.

First we have to know how much years are there in 1 billion years... The answer for that is - 1 billion years contains 1.000 million years       (1.000.000.000 = .1000 x 1.000.000).

Than we sea that we have 4 billion years at the given number, so if 1 billion years contain 1.000 million years, than 4 billion contain 4.000 million years.

We only have now the 0.57 billion years left, so we multiply 1.000 by 0.57 and we get 570.

So at the end we have 4.000 + 570 = 4570 (million years), and since 1 million years are equivalent to 1 inch length, than we have 4570 inches of masking tape.