Campbell's giant can

 My step-by-step thinking process

Given the size of the actual Campbell's Soup can (of normal size) and the height of the bike in the photo (my own medium-sized hybrid bike), what are the dimensions of the volunteer fire department's water tank? What is its volume? Does it hold enough water to put out an average house fire?

I started asking myself:

1.      What are the dimensions of a standard Campbell soup can? I would Google it

2.      Do I remember the formula to calculate the volume of a cylinder? I would Google it

3.      What are the dimensions (length and height) of Susan’s bike? I would Google it

4.      How can I use Susan’s bike to estimate the length and diameter of the water tank?

5.      How much water does an average house fire need? google it

 

I am so tempted to plug the picture into ChatGPT and ask for the volume of a water tank from the fire department in Hornby Island. I usually enjoy observing neural networks at work!

 

I also noticed my brain was asking questions around the piece of art that wouldn’t necessarily help me solve the problem:

-          What is the water tank made of? Why does it look crooked? Is it a visual effect?

-          Why are the tanks placed horizontally on the floor and not vertically at the height?

-          How far are these tanks from the firehouse? Do they need to pump the water?

-          Is this a good question to use for the “Thinking Building Classrooms”?

...to be continued.