The engine on the left burns 3 cords of wood every 30 miles to heat the water in the 850 gallon boiler. The one on the right burned 9 tons of coal every 120 miles to heat the water in its 850 gallon boiler. Both engines had a 2000 gallon reserve in its back around the fuel. Consumption is based on a speed of 25mph.
Right here some cool math with just these facts. One can tell by the chimney's which is wood and which is coal. The short squat chimney is built that way to keep embers from flying out and setting things on fire.
The wood burning engine came from the west while the coal burning came from the east. Think about it this way, the Central Pacific Railroad built 734 miles of track while the Union Pacific laid 1032 miles. So using the information in the second paragraph, it is possible to figure out how many cords of wood were used coming from the west and calculating the amount of coal used to drive all 1032 miles.
The project began in 1865 and took five years to build. The Union Pacific built 40 miles of track the first year, 260 the second, 240 the third year, and 500 miles the fourth year. How many miles did they build the last year? This website has more problems like this one.
This site offers another worksheet with additional math. This one looks at ratios and fractions and more about the Chinese who helped build the Central Pacific Railroad. It evens goes into the number of ties per mile.
It would be cool to teach transcontinental railroad related math in the math class when its being covered in the history class so students see things are related rather than everything existing in a vacuum.
Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. Have a great day.
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