My question is \"A severe thunderstorm dumped 2.5 in of rain in 30 min on a town

Question

My question is "A severe thunderstorm dumped 2.5 in of rain in 30 min on a town of area 40 km2. What mass of water (in kg) fell on the town? One cubic meter of water has a mass of 103 kg."

I converted 2.5 inches to meters and got 0.0635. To find the total volume of water in the town, I took 40000m * 40000m * 0.0635m and got 1.016 * 10^8 cubic meters. Since there are 1000 kg per cubic meter of water, I simple multiplied my total volume of water by 1000 to get 1.016 x 10^11 kg, but this answer was marked as incorrect.

Could someone please help me with what I am doing wrong?

Explanation / Answer

volume of water V = area * depth

= 40 km2 * 2.5 in

= 40 * 10002   m2  * (2.5 * 2.54 / 100) m

since 1 km2   = 10002 m2

and 1 inch = 2.54 / 100 m

V = 2.54 * 106   m3

mass of water m = density * V

= 103  kg/m3  * 2.54 * 106 m3

= 2.54 * 109   kg

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