Different SFG Box Sizes?

casaverde 2/16/2011, 9:53 pm

I have a question for someone smarter that me. If I buy 2 8 foor long boards and cut them into 3 foot and 5 foot pieces. I can build a 3 by 5 foot garden and will have 15 square feet.

If you cut your boards into 4 foot pieces and nail them together. You will have a 4 foot by 4 foot garden or 16 square feet.

Why the difference in square feet when we both used a total of 16 linear feet.

It gets worse thought. What if I cut my 2 eight foot long boards into 6 feet and 2 feet lengths or even 7 feet and 1 foot lengths.

I don't know the answer. Sure hope someone out there can straighten me out.

Fred G.

Megan 2/16/2011, 10:24 pm

Very clever, Fred. Very Happy

Border length and area are different things. Thanks for the mind-bender!

BackyardBirdGardner 2/17/2011, 9:17 am

I have no idea why. I am certainly no math major. If you want some serious entertainment with that question, though, I would post it on Yahoo-Answers. I bet you get some really crazy answers there.

I did notice, though, that the "square" maximizes the total area. The longer you stretch the rectangle, the more area you lose. There's probably some theorem out there that explains it, but geometry was 21 years ago for me........no shot at remembering much of it.

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Different SFG Box Sizes?

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