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The Giant Sky Wheel at the city fair has 20 gondolas, with each gondola able to seat 6 passengers.
The wheel makes one complete rotation every 12 minutes, and passengers are loaded and unloaded without stopping the wheel.
If the Ferris wheel was full every rotation, how many people would have ridden the Giant Sky Wheel in 1 hour from the first rotation starting?
Justify your answer.
Let’s break this down step by step:
1. Calculate the capacity of the Ferris wheel:
– Number of gondolas: 20
– Passengers per gondola: 6
– Total capacity = 20 × 6 = 120 passengers per rotation
2. Calculate the number of rotations in 1 hour:
– Time for one rotation: 12 minutes
– Number of rotations in 1 hour = 60 minutes ÷ 12 minutes = 5 rotations
3. Calculate the total number of passengers in 1 hour:
– Passengers per rotation: 120
– Number of rotations: 5
– Total passengers = 120 × 5 = 600 passengers
Therefore, if the Ferris wheel was full every rotation, 600 people would have ridden the Giant Sky Wheel in 1 hour from the first rotation starting.