A 75-kg human footprint is 0.05 m when the human is wearing boots. Suppose you want to walk on snow surfce that can at most support a pressure of 3 kPa. What should the minimal total snowshoe area be?

area is 0.245 m²

Explanation:

The equation for pressure is

P = F / A

Where P is the pressure, F the force and A the area where the force is applied.

With the data we can calculate the pressure applied by the feet on the human on the floor

P1 = W / A = mg / A

P1 = 75 9.8 / 0.05

P1 = 14700 Pa

Now they tell us that the maxi maque pressure supports the snow is 3 kPa = 3000 Pa, the way to decrease the pressure is to increase the area on which force is applied.

P2 = F / A2

In this case we will calculate the minimum area, so we use the maximum pressure that supports the snow (P2 = 3000 Pa) and the force remains the weight of man

A2 = F / P2

A2 = mg / P2

A2 = 75 9.8 / 3000

A2 = 0.245 m²