The First Oil Well In 1859, Edwin Drake drilled the world’s first oil well, beside Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania. Almost overnight, towns sprang up in the area and people came from everywhere to be part of the oil boom. Until 1901, Pennsylvania produced half of the world’s oil.

Before Drake drilled his well, about 5 gallons of oil could be collected aboveground each day near Oil Creek. Drake’s well produced 210 times as much oil each day as could be collected aboveground.

a. Given that there are 42 gallons in one barrel, find the daily production in barrels of Drake’s well.

b. Let x represent the number of days. Write an expression for the number of barrels of oil produced in x days.

c. How many days did it take the well to produce 500 barrels of oil? How do you know?

 

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