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The volume of a chip in cubic inches can be determined by finding the volume of a cylinder with a radius of 3/4" and a height of 1/8".

Using the formula for volume of a cylinder

pi x r squared x h = 22/7 x 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/8 =

approximately .22 cubic inches per chip.

By measuring it on my screen with a ruler ( ), your chip ball machine is approximately 7 3/4 inches across at the widest point and 6 inches in height, not counting the base (the chip in the center measures almost exactly 3/4", or one-half its actual size). However, it is too damn difficult to figure out the volume of that odd shape! So, I'll use the estimation that overall your machine approximates the volume of a 7 inch diameter sphere.

The volume of a sphere is:

4/3 x pi x r cubed = 4/3 x 22/7 x 7/2 x 7/2 x 7/2 =

179.66 cubic inches.

Thus, if you could fill the machine perfectly, it would hold approximately 816 chips (179.66/.22). Of course, you can't fill it perfectly, as there is some wasted space which, unfortunately, I have to guess at after eyeballing the machine!

I'm going to estimate that the wasted space equals 12.5% of the total volume, which means that the total number of chips = 816 x .875 = 714. QED

It is, of course, a complete coincidence that this total is exactly the number of home runs that Babe Ruth hit in his career!!

----- jim o\-S