Assume that an individual adult in our society requires an energy intake of 10.0 MJ/d. Let this energy come exclusively from eating beef that was produced with a 10.0% energy conversion efficiency. Let the beef be fed by corn produced with another 10.0% energy conversion efficiency, and let the corn be produced from sunlight with a 1.00% energy conversion efficiency. Further, let the corn be grown in a region where the solar energy flux is 20:0 MJ/ (m2 .d).
a. Compute the number of acres (1.000 acre = 4047 m2 ) of land necessary to grow the corn required to feed the beef ultimately consumed by one adult person.
b. If some 16.0 × 109 acres are available for cultivation on Earth today, estimate the total population that can be supported by this food chain.
c. If the current world population is 6.00 × 109 people and the population growth rate is given by p = poexp(0:0300t), where p is the population at time t, po is the initial population, and t is time measured in years from the present, determine the number of years into the future when the population calculated in part b will be reached.