We may have an answer!

Yesterday I posted something about the possibility of quantifying the number of raindrops that would fall during a five minute period in a one square mile area. The topic generated a surprising amount of reaction, and I knew that if anyone could make an educated guess about the answer, it would be my friend Charlie. He has an engineering background and his mind works in ways that fascinate me. That, combined with the fact that he is in Business School right now (where they use tons of statistical analysis), led me to believe that he could actually figure it out. Here is what he sent me:

My estimate is 2.63 trillion rain drops/square mile in 5 minutes when it is raining at 1cm of accumulation per hour, would be a light/moderate steady rain.



Here’s a spreadsheet you can play with to see how many drops accumulate when the severity of the rain and the drop size distribution changes. I got my drop size distribution here: http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/IgorVolynets.shtml

This is, after all, the same guy who calculated the total amount of time it would take for the EMU to pass out all of their student football tickets and the points-per-minute ratio on our Property exam. He has a mind like a computer (if we could somehow just get him assigned to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or figure out how to get us out of Iraq I have little doubt he'd come up with a plan). Way to go Charlie!