Hello ,

I am journalist in California trying to convert cubic yards of trash (appliances, furniture, tires and household trash) into the space of a football field.

Is there a formula for this?

For example, how much of an American football field would 45,000 cubic yards of said trash fill up? The typical American football field I am told is 120 yards (110 meters) long by 53 ¹/₂ yards (49 meters) wide

Ideally, I'd like to be about to say this amount of trash would fill up the football field XX-feet deep

Thanks for considering my request

Sincerely,

Chris

Chris,

Volume over area equals height: 45,000/(110x53) = 45,000/5,830 = 7.72 yards; not quite a first down, but still two players stacked atop each other. J.A. Paulos says that the most impressive numbers are those obtained by converting the volume to essentially a length instead of a volume: If you had to carry all of that trash in the trailer of a single truck, say 3 yards wide by 3 yards high, how long would that trailer have to be? Answer: 45,000/(3x3) = 5,000 yards; just a bit less than three miles.

Claude