How much water would it be if you took the top 1 inch of the ocean?

Answer 1

From Wikipedia: 'The area of the World Ocean is 361 million square kilometers (139 million sq mi)' An inch is 1/63360 of a mile, so that makes a volume of 139 000 000 / 63360 = 2194 cubic miles

Answer 2

This is a little indeterminate because of the variables, warming of the oceans alone will cause the water in them to expand and therefore a rise in levels will result 'without' any extra water. But more of the world's ice will melt and it will abstract heat not only from the air but from the sea too, remember roughly a third of an iceberg is under water and water expands when it freezes so contraction results when ice melts adding to the ambiguity. Higher global temperatures will cause more evaporation of the sea so more of the earths water will be in the form of water vapour in the atmosphere. This will also result in the air being slightly heavier so more atmospheric pressure would be exerted on surface of the sea. So all in all it is impossible to calculate a rise in sea level as there are so many variables, even the top scientists are arguing about it.

But if you just literally wanted a plain answer, the sea covers roughly two thirds of the surface of the planet:

Earths surface area ~ 183,589,372 mile square,

Divided by 2/3 ~ 122,392,914 miles square of sea surface area.

That's 4.91x10^17 inches square or 491,000,000,000,000,000 inches square.

It would take 1 cubic inch in volume to raise the sea level 1 inch in 1 square inch of surface area.

1 cubic inch = 16.39 cubic cm

1 cubic cm = 1ml

So 16.39 x 4.91x10^17 = 8.04749x10^18ml

8.04749x10^18 divided by 1,000 = 8.04749x10^15 Litres

or 8,047,490,000,000,000 Litres

or 8,047,490,000,000 Tonnes

0r 1,770,447,800,000 gallons (UK)

These are rough calculations based on a sphere with a circumference of 24,000 miles. Anyone wishing to be pedantic and argue my sums, should really get a life as should I come to think of it :/