Real-Life Math -- Solution
The rate at which water flows, or is pushed through an irrigation system, determines whether the system is effective. In order for your system to be effective, you know that you must pump no more than 500 gallons of water per minute through your system. If more than that goes through the system, it won't soak into the ground properly.
So to determine if your system is pumping water too quickly, you first need to determine how many gallons of water per minute pass through your system. You're spreading 12,000 gallons of water in a 2.75-hour period.
To do that, first find how many minutes are in 2.75 hours.
60 minutes per hour x 2.75 hours = 165 minutes
Now to find how many gallons of water are being pushed through your system per minute, divide the total amount of water used by the total minutes it takes to use it.
12,000 gallons / 165 minutes = 72.73 gallons per minute
Your system pushes 72.73 gallons of water per minute. That's well below the wasteful point of 500 gallons per minute.