Oil Reserves The U.S. Strategic Oil Reserve is a government-owned stockpile of crude oil. It was established after the oil embargo in the mid-1970s and is meant to serve as a national defense fuel reserve, as well as to offset reductions in commercial oil supplies that would threaten the U.S. economy. The graphic depicts oil reserves in 1977 and 2018.


a. How many times larger should the graphic for 2018 be than the 1977 graphic (to the nearest whole number)?

Verified step by step guidance

1. Identify the quantities represented by the two barrels: 7.5 million barrels for 1977 and 652.6 million barrels for 2018.
2. Understand that the question asks for how many times larger the 2018 graphic should be compared to the 1977 graphic, which means finding the ratio of the 2018 reserve to the 1977 reserve.
3. Set up the ratio as \(\frac{652.6}{7.5}\) to compare the sizes directly.
4. Calculate this ratio to find how many times larger the 2018 reserve is compared to the 1977 reserve.
5. Round the result to the nearest whole number to answer how many times larger the graphic should be.

Key Concepts

Ratio and Proportion

Ratio compares two quantities to show how many times one value contains or is contained within the other. In this question, the ratio of oil reserves in 2018 to 1977 helps determine how many times larger the 2018 reserve is compared to 1977.

Rounding Numbers

Rounding simplifies numbers to a specified degree of accuracy, often to the nearest whole number. This is important here to provide a clear, concise answer when comparing the sizes of the oil reserves.

Interpreting Visual Data

Understanding and extracting numerical information from images or graphics is crucial. The image shows barrels labeled with reserve amounts, which must be interpreted correctly to perform calculations and answer the question.