Thursday, July 15, 2010

Everyday Math Problems

If your boat is sitting in 20 feet of water, and you have 100 feet of chain out attached to your anchor (on the diagonal), how far are you from your anchor?  Think: Pythagoras’ theorum.  Both our kids are now familiar with it, so give this one to your kids, and post your answers. Calculators permitted.

4 comments:

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  2. You kids really got me thinking...I got out my pencil and paper and tried to remember how to find the square root of 9600 without a calculator and I actually remembered (I then checked it out with a calculator) - so I guess my brain still works.
    Now I have 2 other problems for you to figure out but you need to know or learn the formulae for circles (circumference {like perimeter} and area), so here goes:
    1. Once the chain is out at its fullest and stays that way, what is the greatest distance the boat can travel around the anchor and return to its starting point.
    2. Your mother tells you that you can go swimming as long as you do not go beyond the boundary of this circle, what is the area in which you can swim?
    Love you all, so start thinking...

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  3. you are 100 feet from your anchor. Swim 100 feet down the anchor chain and you are there. No math required! Hope you guys are doing well on your adventure! Barry

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