Real-Life Math
Mr. Racine, who operates a large wheat farm, bought another section of land to grow even more wheat. He hired you, an agricultural engineer, to design an irrigation system that will be efficient and economical for this area. This is a big job, and will require many calculations.
"Like all engineers, agricultural engineers must have a very solid background in mathematics," says Loren Bode, an agricultural engineer. "Most jobs require design, development, evaluation and testing -- that requires the use of advanced math."
However, before you begin designing an irrigation system for the Racines, you need to know the soil texture on this farm to make sure it's the type that can be successfully irrigated. You go out to the site and take a 150-pound soil sample.
To determine the soil texture, you separate and weigh the amount of sand, silt and clay in the soil sample. By shifting the soil through screens you end up with 67.5 pounds of sand, 52.5 pounds of silt and 30 pounds of clay.
Question One:
What percentages of sand, silt and clay are found in your soil?
Question Two:
If the soil texture has 35 percent or more of both sand and silt, you can recommend irrigation because this soil will hold enough moisture, but will also have good drainage. Is the soil on the Racines' farm suitable for irrigation?