On average, a commercial airplane burns about 4.0 × 103 mL of gasoline per second. There can be as many as 5 × 103 airplanes in the air in the United States at any given time. About how many gallons of gasoline are burned per hour by commercial airplanes in flight in the United States? (1 gal = 3,785.41 mL).

Question

On average, a commercial airplane burns about 4.0 × 103 mL   of gasoline per second. There can be as many as 5 × 103 airplanes in the air in the United States at any given time.   About how many gallons of gasoline are burned per hour by commercial airplanes in flight in the United States? (1 gal = 3,785.41 mL).

anonymous · Answer

60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute, so 60*60 seconds in an hour.

4.0*103 * 60*60  mL of fuel burned per hour per plane

take the resulting number and multiply by 5*103 

that's the total amount of mL of fuel burned by all airplanes in the USA

then just divide by 3,785.41 and you'll have it in gallons