Question

Suppose that every person in the world (about
6 billion people in all) were employed as an
atom counter. Each person would work a 40 hour week and be able to count one atom per
second. How long would it take for 6 billion people to count the hydrogen atoms in 4.4 lb of hydrogen?
Answer in units of years

Answer 1

I know that 4.4 lbs of hydrogen atoms would weigh 1.201901904E27atoms.

Answer 2

If it takes 1 second to weight an atom, you have to calculate first how many seconds would take to weight all the atoms.
This is a simple rule of 3.
1 atom - 1 second
1.201901904E27atoms - 1.201901904E27 seconds

Now we know the seconds it will take you have to calculate the weeks that will take to measure the atoms with all the people working 40 hours /week.

Working seconds every week between all the people:
\[Secs= 6\times10^{^{12}} people \times 40 hours \times \frac{ 60 \min }{ 1 hour } \times \frac{ 60 \sec }{ 1 \min } = 864000\times 10^{12} = 8.64\times 10^{17} seconds / week\]

Now with another rule of 3:
8.64E17 sec -1 week
1.201901904E27 - ¿?

\[\frac{ 1.201901904\times 10^{27} }{ 8.64 \times 10^{17} }=1.39109017\times 10^{9}\]

Answer 3

1.3919017 E9 weeks of work.

Answer 4

they want it in years not in weeks