The space shuttle's external tank was a component of the space shuttle's launch vehicle that carried the fuel during launch. The tank is cylindrical in shape, having a diameter of 8.4 metres and is 46.9 metres in length. A) How much fuel would the tank hold? B) The tank takes 8.5 minutes to be emptied during launch. At what rate is the fuel being used?

a. The tank would hold a 2,600.136 m^3 or 2,600,136 liters of fuel

b. The rate at which the fuel is being used is 305,898.35 liters of fuel per minute

Step-by-step explanation:

a. Since the tank is cylindrical in shape, we can mathematically calculate the volume of the cylinder so as to know the amount of fuel it will hold.

Mathematically, the volume of a cylinder;

V = π * r^2 * h

where r is the radius which is the diameter divided by 2 = 8.4/2 = 4.2 meters in this case

h is the length here (in place of the conventional height) = 46.9 meters

π = 22/7

Plugging these values into the equation, we have;

V = 22/7 * 4.2^2 * 46.9 = 2,600.136 m^3 of fuel

Since 1 m^3 = 1000 liters

then 2,600.136 m^3 = 2,600.136 * 1000 = 2,600,136 liters (liters is a more comfortable unit when talking about liquids such as fuel)

b. Now we want to know the rate at which the fuel is used

What we need here is to just divide the volume of fuel used by the number of minutes it took the tank to be emptied

That would be = 2,600,136/8.5 = 305,898.35 liters/minute