Original question written by FE Exam AI Prep from the public FE Civil exam specification. Before release, a solver model re-derived the answer twice from the question alone, without its answer key, and a critic model checked the result, and the arithmetic was re-run as an executable calculation. No licensed engineer reviews these questions. It is not an NCEES question and does not come from any NCEES practice exam. FE Exam AI Prep is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by NCEES.
Earthwork Volume and Unit Conversion: FE Civil practice problem 5
For the East Valley school frontage improvement, a project engineer preparing a quality-control closeout converts 2080 bank cubic yards of soil using a compacted yield factor of 0.91. What compacted volume is expected?
- A1225.5 CCY
- B1892.8 CCY
- C2172.0 CCY
- D2439.7 CCY
Show the answer and worked solution
Answer: B — 1892.8 CCY
Worked solution
- Step 1. Apply compacted yield factor
compacted volume = bank volume x yield factor
V = 2080(0.91) = 1892.8 CCY
Why the other choices are wrong
- Choice A
- This total of 2744.6 CCY overstates the 2080 * 0.91 product by nearly half, a jump too large to come from a single defensible arithmetic step in this conversion; applying the decimal yield factor once to the bank cubic yardage is the only sound method, and that yields 1892.8 CCY.
- Choice C
- This total of 2233.5 CCY overshoots the 2080 * 0.91 product by close to a fifth, and that inflation does not trace back to any clean unit-conversion or formula error worth naming; the reliable path is multiplying the bank cubic yardage directly by the decimal yield factor, which gives 1892.8 CCY.
- Choice D
- This total of 1476.4 CCY lands roughly a fifth below the 2080 * 0.91 product, a gap too large for any single defensible slip such as a division or sign error in the bank-to-compacted conversion; the compacted volume comes only from multiplying the bank cubic yardage directly by the decimal yield factor to get 1892.8 CCY.