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The following list summarizes the strategies for getting a good order-of-
magnitude estimate.
(1) Don’t even attempt more than one significant figure of precision.
(2) Don’t guess area or volume directly. Guess linear dimensions and
get area or volume from them.
(3) When dealing with areas or volumes of objects with complex
shapes, idealize them as if they were some simpler shape, a cube or a
sphere, for example.
(4) Check your final answer to see if it is reasonable. If you estimate
that a herd of ten thousand cattle would yield 0.01 m
2
of leather,
then you have probably made a mistake with conversion factors
somewhere.
Section 1.4Order-of-Magnitude Estimates