The tender

The plans of the 700 show that the tender attached to the rear of the engine was designed to carry 17 tons of coal and 5000 gallons of water.

• Use your calculator or a book of tables to convert these measurements to metric units.

• Can you give some ‘real life’ estimation of what these numbers mean?

                                                                 
                           


The conversion ratios are:

1 ton = 1.016 tonnes
1 gallon = 4.546 litres

So 17 tons = 17.272 tonnes

and

5900 gallons = 25 821 litres.

By comparison, three large truck-loads of compost
might come to 15 tonnes.

Similarly, a large tanker might hold 41 000 litres of petrol.