Expert: Jack Cheng - 12/22/2006

Question
Hello Jack--

I am trying to figure out how to deal with methane gas created by cattle, which apparently is a significant factor in greenhouse gases and global warming. Could a device be created to capture those gases directly from the animal? This would involve a pretty big bag as they can create up to 500 liters of gas a day. How much volume is that? To help me visualize this, if it were a cube, how big would each side be? Or as a sphere, what would the diameter be?

Thanks for your time,
Kevin

Answer
Hi Kevin,

500 liters is a measurement of volume :)

1 L = 1000 mL = 1000 cm^3.
500 L = 500,000 mL = 500,000 cm^3

If that volume fills a cube completely, each side of the cube would be (500,000 cm^3)^(2/3) or 79.4 cm long. (It might not seem that long, but remember, it's a box.)

If that volume fills a sphere completely, the radius of the sphere would be [500,000*0.75/pi]^(1/3), or about 49 cm. The diameter, then, is about 98 cm.

I hope this helps,
Jack