22 www.The-Farmer.com ● December 2009
Crops
Every drop adds its weight to land
DITOR’S note: Given the wet
autumn, we found this information
interesting. This is an edited version of a report written by North Dakota
State University range scientist Llewllyn
Manske.
Water in the form of precipitation
is unevenly distributed over the land.
Each inch of rain is relatively heavy.
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NORTHERN
EXTRA
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An inch of rain on a square foot of land
weighs 5.20 pounds. An inch of rain on 1
acre of land weighs 113.31 tons.
There are two procedures to follow
to determine the weight of 1 inch of rain
on 1 acre of land.
In the first procedure, we determine
the number of cubic inches of water on
1 acre and the weight in pounds of 1
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Plato, Minn.
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Heron Lake, Minn.
cubic inch of water. Then we use these
values to determine the weight of 1 inch
of rain on 1 acre.
An acre is one rod wide (16.5 feet)
and one-half mile long (2,640 feet). The
number of square feet in an acre is 16.5
feet, so multiplied by 2,640 feet equals
43,560 square feet per acre.
There are 144 square inches in a
square foot. So 43,560 square feet multiplied by 144 square inches equals
6,272,640 square inches per acre. One
inch of rain multiplied by 6,272,640
square inches per acre equals 6,272,640
cubic inches of water per acre.
A gallon of water weighs 8.345
pounds. A cubic foot of water contains
7.48 gallons. Multiply a cubic foot of
water (7.48) by the weight of 1 gallon
(8.345) and that equals 62.427 pounds of
water per cubic foot.
One cubic foot contains 1,728 cubic
inches. The weight of 1 cubic inch of
water (62.427) divided by 1,728 cubic
inches equals 0.036 pounds of water
per cubic inch. The weight of 1 inch of
rain on 1 acre of land is 6,272,640 cubic
inches of water per acre times 0.036
pounds of water per cubic inch, which
equals 226,610.676 pounds of water per
acre.
There are 2,000 pounds in 1 ton. The
weight of water per acre, 226,610.68
pounds, divided by 2,000 equals 113.3
tons of water in 1 inch of rain on 1 acre
of land.
Second way to weigh
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The second approach determines the
number of gallons in 1 inch of water over
1 acre and then determines the weight
of that number of gallons of water.
A cubic foot of water contains 7.48
gallons. There are 1,728 cubic inches
in 1 cubic foot. The number of gallons
of water in a cubic inch (7.48) divided
by 1,728 cubic inches equals 0.004 gallons per cubic inch of water. There are
6,272,640 cubic inches of water on 1
acre. This value times 0.004 gallons per
cubic inch equals 27,154.29 gallons of
water per acre. A gallon of water weighs
8.345 pounds. The weight of water per
gallon (8.345) multiplied by 27,154.29
gallons of water per acre equals
226,610.68 pounds of water per inch of
rain on 1 acre. This value divided by
2,000 pounds equals 113.3 tons of water
per acre.