CHAPTER IV. COMPUTING FACTS ABOUT THE

UNITED STATES

33. The Use of Large Numbers

I

In almost every newspaper, in magazines, in books, and in government reports, are found interesting facts about our country, expressed in figures. In order to understand these facts, it is necessary to know how to read large numbers.

According to the last census, the wealth of the country in real estate and personal property had increased in ten years from $88,517,306,000 to approximately $107,000,000,000..

$88,517,306,000 is read 88 billion, 517 million, 306 thousand

In the numbers above, what name is given to the figures in the first period, counting from the right? To the figures in the second period? To those in the third? To those in the fourth?

16. Be prepared to write from dictation numbers taken from

your geographies.

17. Find in your geography an interesting statement containing a large number. Be ready to read it to your class.

34. Tests for Speed and Accuracy

Use these tests to measure your speed and accuracy with integers.

L. 9042570

M. 721 37492 N. 59 38350 0.168/13104

If, within the time limit, you failed to get the correct answers to all of the problems in any of the tests above, use for practice the problems on pages 272-275 of the kind that delayed you, then try the test again.

If you had no trouble with the tests, improve your power of computing by solving these problems.

1. With the help of the map on page 204, write the names of the five smallest states with the area of each. Write the names and the areas of the five largest states.

2. Alaska contains 590,884 square miles. It contains how many more square miles than Texas?

3. The two largest states along the Atlantic seacoast are Georgia and Florida. First estimate, and then find, how many more square miles California contains than these two states together.

4. The largest state bordering the Mississippi river is Minnesota. The area of Minnesota is how much greater than that of the six New England States?

5. The area of what New England States combined can be included in the area of Illinois?

THE FIVE GREAT LAKES

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6. Compare the area of your own state with that of three others. 7. Make at least one other comparison that interests you.

8. The area of the United States east of the Mississippi is 881,476 sq. mi.; the area west of it is 2,145,313 sq. mi.; the area of Alaska is 590,884 sq. mi. What is the entire area of continental United States including Alaska?

9. The area of the islands belonging to the United States is as follows: the Philippine Islands, 115,026 sq. mi.; Porto Rico, 3435 sq. mi., Hawaii, 6449 sq. mi.; Tutuila and islets, 77 sq. mi.; Guam, 210 sq. mi. How many square miles do our islands include?

10. The Panama Zone includes 436 sq. mi. What is the entire area of the United States, including the states and the territory of the mainland, the island possessions, and the Panama Canal Zone? *II. The area of the United States before the Spanish American War (1898) was 3,624,122 sq. mi. Its area has been increased by how many miles since that time?

36. The Five Great Lakes

[With pencil.]

1. The five Great Lakes are among the largest in the world. Find from the table below their total area:

2. Traveling at the rate of 20 miles an hour, how many hours does it take a steamboat to go the length of Lake Superior? Of each of the other Great Lakes?