Wine, Wine Barrels, and Cylinders

While visiting Germany, I visited a castle in the middle of Heidelberg.  The castle is known for several things including its Apothecary Museum but that is not for today.  In another part of the castle, with the restaurants and wine bar, there were three wine caskets of varying size.  When I looked at them, I realized this is one of those perfect opportunities to bring back a real world use of cylinder. 

On display, just past the entrance, stood two wine barrels, a small one and what I thought was the big one.

I was only able to find information on the size of the largest barrel but I'm going to assign values to the others so I can create problems using the two other casks. Based on research, the smallest is probably 23 by 28 inches or about 65 gallons.

The middle sized which is the one off to the right is probably 4 meters across by 5 meters long so its easy to calculate volume on both.  Its easiest to make convert all measurements to centimeters because 1 milliliter (ml) = 1 cubic centimeter (cc)= 0.001 liters (l) = 0.000001 cubic meters (m³).

Add in these conversion factors and students can calculate how many bottles of wine, each one can fill. 

1 ml = 0.061024 cubic inches (in³) ; 1 in³ = 16.4 ml

1 ml = 0.000035 cubic feet (ft³); 1 ft³ = 28,317 ml

1 ml = 2.64 x 10^-4 U.S. gallons (gal); 1 gal = 4.55 x 10³ ml

This turns out to be the largest of three.  It has a diameter of 7  meters and a depth of 8.5 meters.  This is enough information to calculate the volume of the worlds largest wine barrel.

In addition, it holds 220,000 liters or 58,124 gallons of wine.  This information allows students to calculate how many 750 ml (25.4 ounces) bottles can be filled from this cask.

At least three problems from these pictures of wine casks found in a castle in Heidelberg which require calculating volume, converting, and figuring out how many bottles can be filled.

All real life problems.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.