News

Actions

This is how long it would take to resurface all of Lake Superior with one Zamboni

Posted
and last updated

(WXYZ) — Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by area, and in classic Michigan fashion, one Up North apparel company published an article looking at how long it would take to resurface the entire frozen lake using just one Zamboni.

U.P. Supply Co. published the article saying that the lake is currently 76.8 percent frozen, and it's only been completely frozen one time since 1973, according to the NOAA. That was on March 8, 1996.

They then break down a few facts, mentioning the size of Lake Superior at 31,700 square miles, comparing it to the standard ice rink of 17,000 square feet. According to the article, one Zamboni takes about seven minutes to resurface an ice rink and it travels about 3/4 of a mile.

After some math, the website found that one frozen Lake Superior equals 52,020,513 ice rinks. Then, they multiplied the seven minutes per rink by the 52,020,413 ice ranks which comes out to 364,143,591minutes to resurface the lake.

You then take that number and divide it by 1,440, the number of minutes in a day, and it comes out to a little over 252,877 days, which then breaks down to just under 693 years.