If someone said to you "60 million square feet of grass is enough to
lay a strip of sod one-third of the way around the Earth" would they
be correct?  How wide would the strip be?  If the strip were half a
mile wide, how far would the strip go around the world?  Please
include your calculations in your answer.  THANKS!!

Hello marpen,

60,000,000 square feet is equivalent, for example, to a rectangle
60,000,000 feet long and 1 foot wide.

At the equator, the circumference of the Earth is 24,901.55 miles. 
Since there are 5,280 feet in a mile, the circumference is 131,480,184
feet.

So a rectangle 60,000,000 feet long by 1 foot wide would go more than
one-third around the world (60,000,000 feet divided by 131,480,184
feet).

In order to go one-third around the world, the rectangle would need to
be one-third of 131,480,184 feet long, which is 43,826,728 feet.

60,000,000 square feet divided by 43,826,728 feet is approximately
1.3690276 feet.  So that's how wide the strip would need to be to go
one-third around the world.

A strip a half-mile wide is 2,640 feet (one-half of 5,280 feet) wide. 
60,000,000 square feet divided by 2,640 feet is approximately
22,727.273 feet.

The length of this strip (22,727.273 feet) divided by the
circumference of the Earth (131,480,184 feet) is about 0.000172857. 
That is equivalent to 0.0172857 percent.  Thus, this strip would go
about 0.0172857 percent of the way around the earth.

- justaskscott


Search strategy --

Searched for circumference of the Earth by looking on Google for:

earth miles circumference diameter

See:

"Geography Glossary" [under "Equator"]
infoplease
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0908193.html

[Otherwise, I relied on general math knowledge and a calculator.]

Very concise answer!  Thanks!  Marpen