Question

1. Europe and North America are moving apart at 2 cm per year. Find (or estimate) the width of the North Atlantic Ocean and determine how long ago the North Atlantic began to form. Use Wikipedia to find the size of the Atlantic.

Time of expansion:

WIDTH=2,848 kilometres (1,770 mi)

Answer 1

cute pic .... but this aint Wikipedia :)

Answer 2

if something is growing by 2 inches a year; then if we know its width now; we can backtrack to find how long it took to get there

Answer 3

Width today = 2(number of years to get there)

Width today
---------- = nuber of years it took to get there
2

Answer 4

but first you need to convert to the same units of measure; since inches is not the same as miles or kilometers.

Answer 5

2,848,000
---------- = a whole bunch of years.
.02

Answer 6

.... i remember when we could just jump across the atlantic to invade the surds ;)

Answer 7

That old, but you are not older than I

Answer 8

thats because I count my age modularly :) while your age is simply linear ....

Answer 9

and they say the world is getting smaller ???

Answer 10

Isn't cm .01 m??

Answer 11

1/100th of a meter .... yeah, but without a british yardstick, I got no clue

Answer 12

142,400,000 years

Answer 13

and it seems like it was just yesterday!