[Guest]

I did a search but couldn't find this one.

The builders of an irrigation canal needed a lead plate of a certain size, but had no lead in stock. They decided to melt some lead shot. But how could they find its volume beforehand?

One suggestion was to measure a ball, apply the formula for volume of a sphere, and multiply by the number of balls. But this would take too long, and anyway the shot wasn't the same size.

Another was to weigh all the shot and divide by the specific gravity of lead. Unfortunately, no one could remember this ratio, and there was no manual in the field shop.

Another was to pour the shot into a gallon jug. But the volume of the jug is greater than the volume of the shot by an undetermined amount, since the shot cannot be packed solid, and part of the jug contains air.

Do you have a suggestion?

[grey cells]

Melt the lead shot in an already set mould . Not sure though.

[Guest]

melt the shot and pour it into the gallon jug hopefully when it's at a low enough temperature that it won't melt the jug. Once you fill the jug, you have a gallon of lead, and if desired you can carefully cut away the plastic jug and have a gallon of lead. Not sure if this counts because you want the volume beforehand, but once it hardens again, they will have the volume before they melt it.

[Guest]

1 - melt all the lead or more than enough and leave the rest to harden

2 - google for the specific gravity nearly 11,400kg/m3- voila!

3 - eureka!

Note shot is 'generally' the same size.

[bonanova]

Put the shot into the bottle.

Pour water into the bottle until it's full.

Pour out the water and measure it - it's the amount of air between the pellets.

Now you know the volume of the pellets.

[Guest]

Put the shot into the bottle.

Pour water into the bottle until it's full.

Pour out the water and measure it - it's the amount of air between the pellets.

Now you know the volume of the pellets.

Wonderful!!! Now how do you optimize this to get the right amount of pellets with least amount of time?

[bonanova]

Wonderful!!! Now how do you optimize this to get the right amount of pellets with least amount of time?

If you need some fraction f of a gallon of lead, pour [1-f] gallons of water into the jug.

Add lead pellets until the jug is full.

Or is that not what you wanted?