Questions: According to one study, the average American shower lasts for 8.2 minutes and uses 17.2 gallons of water. A person showers once a day for a year. Find the total cost per year. Round to the nearest dollar per year.

Solution Steps

To find the total cost per year of showering, we need to calculate the total amount of water used in a year and then multiply it by the cost per gallon. First, determine the total gallons used per year by multiplying the daily water usage by the number of days in a year. Then, multiply this total by the cost per gallon to find the total cost.

The daily water usage for a shower is given as \( 17.2 \) gallons. To find the total water usage in a year, we multiply the daily usage by the number of days in a year:

\[ \text{Total Water Usage Per Year} = 17.2 \, \text{gallons/day} \times 365 \, \text{days} = 6278.0 \, \text{gallons} \]

Assuming the cost of water is \( 0.01 \) dollars per gallon, we can calculate the total cost for the year by multiplying the total water usage by the cost per gallon:

\[ \text{Total Cost Per Year} = 6278.0 \, \text{gallons} \times 0.01 \, \text{dollars/gallon} = 62.78 \, \text{dollars} \]

Finally, we round the total cost to the nearest dollar:

\[ \text{Total Cost Per Year (Rounded)} = \text{round}(62.78) = 63 \, \text{dollars} \]

Final Answer