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Million gallons per day (Mgal/d) - how much is it?

Water-use measurements are usually expressed in million of gallons of water used per day (Mgal/d). You'll understand the data better if you can visualize how much a million gallons is. An average-sized bath holds 50 gallons, so a million gallons would be 20,000 baths.

Swimming pool 267 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 10 feet deep

One way to envision how much a million gallons of water is to think of it as a large swimming pool or a cube. You would need a pool about 267 feet long (almost as long as a football field), 50 feet wide, and 10 feet deep to hold a million gallons. The cube on the right side of the graphic shows that 1 million gallons would form a cube that is 51.1 feet on each side.

This URL: http://nts4dgaatl.er.usgs.gov:80/HydroHelp/mgd.cfm
Last updated: 12/15/2003 09:20:48 AM

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