Thanks to everyone who submitted answers for last week’s minutes. Congratulations to the winner, Brant, who was chosen by random number from the submissions. There certainly is a lot of math going on here daily on the JR, so don’t worry, there’ll be another chance to win a T-shirt this week! Monday’s question is already posted on the expedition page. Here are the answers to last week’s questions.

Monday: The ocean is 4494 m deep where we are drilling. Today, our goal is to drill to 110 mbsf (meters below seafloor). Each stand of drill pipe is 30m long. How many stands of drill pipe will we have assembled by the time we reach our goal?

4494 m + 110 m = 4604 m

4604 m ÷ 30 m = 153.47

154 stands are needed to reach the target depth.

Tuesday: To get to our study site, we traveled for 86.75 hours at an average speed of 11.4 knots (nm/hr). How far away are we from where we started in Barbados?

86.75 hr x 11.4 nm/hr = 988.95 nm

We are about 989 nautical miles away from Barbados.

Wednesday: Our lifeboats are 8.64 m x 2.91 m x 2.85 m each. How many cubic meters of space is there in one lifeboat?

8.64 m x 2.91 m x 2.85 m = 71.66 m³

The lifeboats each enclose about 72 cubic meters of space. Since they hold 70 people, that’s about 1 cubic meter per person!

Thursday: If each person on board (120 people) drinks an 8-oz glass of orange juice every day for breakfast, how many gallons should the camp boss order for a 60-day expedition?

120 people x 8 oz x 60 days = 57,600 oz

57,600 oz ÷ 128 oz/gal = 450 gal

He would need to purchase 450 gallons of orange juice just for breakfast!

Friday: Out of the 29 scientists onboard, 8 are from Europe and 6 are from Asia. What percentage of our scientists are from North America?

8 + 6 = 14

29 – 14 = 15

(15 ÷ 29) x 100 = 51.7%

About 52% of the scientists are from North America.