How Much Corn Field Area Would Be Required If You

question 7

Short Answer

How much corn field area would be required if you were to replace all of the oil consumed in the USA with ethanol from corn? Use the following assumptions: a corn field is 1.5% efficient at converting radiant energy into stored chemical potential energy; conversion from corn to ethanol is 17% efficient; assume a 1.2:1 ratio for farm equipment to energy production; a 50% growing season; and, 200 W/ m² solar insolation. What would the length of each side of a square be to have such an area?

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Definitions:

Raw Materials Quantity Variance

The difference between the expected and actual quantity of raw materials used in production, affecting manufacturing costs.

Materials Price Variance

This is the difference between the actual cost of direct materials and the standard cost, multiplied by the quantity purchased.

October

The tenth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, preceding November.

Variable Overhead Efficiency Variance

This is the difference between the expected (standard) cost of variable overheads based on actual production outputs and the actual variable overhead costs incurred.