Physics » The Nature of Physics » Approximation

# Approximation in Physics

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Make reasonable approximations based on given data.

## What is approximation?

On many occasions, physicists, other scientists, and engineers need to make approximations or “guesstimates” for a particular quantity. What is the distance to a certain destination? What is the approximate density of a given item? About how large a current will there be in a circuit? Many approximate numbers are based on formulae in which the input quantities are known only to a limited accuracy.

As you develop problem-solving skills (that can be applied to a variety of fields through a study of physics), you will also develop skills at approximating. You will develop these skills through thinking more quantitatively, and by being willing to take risks.

As with any endeavor, experience helps, as well as familiarity with units. These approximations allow us to rule out certain scenarios or unrealistic numbers. Approximations also allow us to challenge others and guide us in our approaches to our scientific world. Let us do two examples to illustrate this concept.

## Example: Approximate the Height of a Building

Can you approximate the height of one of the buildings in your neighborhood? Let us make an approximation based upon the height of a person. In this example, we will calculate the height of a 39-storey building.

### Strategy

Think about the average height of an adult male. We can approximate the height of the building by scaling up from the height of a person.

### Solution

Based on information in the example, we know there are 39 stories in the building. If we use the fact that the height of one storey is approximately equal to about the length of two adult humans (each human is about 2-m tall), then we can estimate the total height of the building to be

$$\cfrac{2\;\text{m}}{1\;\text{person}} \times \cfrac{2\;\text{person}}{1\;\text{storey}} \times 39\;\text{stories}$$$$= 156\;\text{m}.$$

### Discussion

You can use known quantities to determine an approximate measurement of unknown quantities. If your hand measures 10 cm across, how many hand lengths equal the width of your desk? What other measurements can you approximate besides length?

## Example: Approximating Vast Numbers such as a Trillion Dollars

A bank stack contains one-hundred \$100 bills, and is worth \$10,000. How many bank stacks make up a trillion dollars? Image credit: Andrew Magill

The U.S. federal deficit in the 2008 fiscal year was a little greater than \$10 trillion. Even in naira, most of us do not have any concept of how much even one trillion naira actually is. Suppose that you were given a trillion dollars in \$100 bills. If you made 100-bill stacks and used them to evenly cover an American football field (between the end zones), make an approximation of how high the money pile would become. (We will use feet/inches rather than meters here because American football fields are measured in yards.) One of your friends says 3 in., while another says 10 ft. What do you think?

American football field. Image credit: BubbaMiller via Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

### Strategy

When you imagine the situation, you probably envision thousands of small stacks of 100 wrapped \$100 bills, such as you might see in movies or at a bank. Since this is an easy-to-approximate quantity, let us start there. We can find the volume of a stack of 100 bills, find out how many stacks make up one trillion dollars, and then set this volume equal to the area of the football field multiplied by the unknown height.

### Solution

#### Volume of a stack of 100 bills

(1) Calculate the volume of a stack of 100 bills. The dimensions of a single bill are approximately 3 in. by 6 in. A stack of 100 of these is about 0.5 in. thick. So the total volume of a stack of 100 bills is:

$$\text{volume of stack}$$$$= \text{length} \times \text{width} \times \text{height},$$

$$\text{volume of stack}$$$$= 6\;\text{in}. \times 3\;\text{in}. \times 0.5\;\text{in}.$$

$$\text{volume of stack}$$$$= 9\;\text{in}.^3.$$

#### Number of stacks

(2) Calculate the number of stacks. Note that a trillion dollars is equal to $$\1 × 10^{12},$$ and a stack of one-hundred $$\100$$ bills is equal to $$\10,000,$$ or $$1 × 10^4.$$ The number of stacks you will have is:

$$\cfrac{\1 × 10^{12}\text{(a trillion dollars)}}{\1 × 10^4 \text{per stack}}$$$$= 1 × 10^8 \text{stacks}.$$

#### Area of a football field

(3) Calculate the area of a football field in square inches. The area of a football field is $$100 \text{yd} × 50 \text{yd},$$ which gives $$5,000 \text{yd}^2.$$ Because we are working in inches, we need to convert square yards to square inches:

$$\text{Area} = 5,000 \text{yd}^2 × \cfrac{3 \text{ft}}{1 \text{yd}}$$$$× \cfrac{3 \text{ft}}{1 \text{yd}} × \cfrac{12 \text{in.}}{1 \text{ft}} × \cfrac{12 \text{in.}}{1 \text{ft}}$$$$= 6,480,000 \text{in.}^2,$$
$$\text{Area} ≈ 6 × 10^6 \text{in.}^2.$$

#### Height

(5) Calculate the height. To determine the height of the bills, use the equation:

### Discussion

The final approximate value is much higher than the early estimate of 3 in., but the other early estimate of 10 ft (120 in.) was roughly correct. How did the approximation measure up to your first guess? What can this exercise tell you in terms of rough “guesstimates” versus carefully calculated approximations?