The new playground will receive its sunshade in the coming days, but the hardware requirements are still unknown (at the time of this article). Students in grades ranging from 4 to 10 worked together this week during Maths Intensive to address the question.
Given an assortment of available hardware, the dimensions of the new coverings and the distances between the support poles, which hardware is the right size and how many of each are needed? Techniques used so far include scale drawing and rulers, trial and error, direct measurement and calculation, and the setting and solving of appropriate formulas.
The best solutions will consider the need to pull as much slack out as possible and yet recognize the reality that some slack will remain. Complicating the problem is the need to connect multiple shades together to create a complete whole. The exercise emphasizes the need for appropriate planning, the issue of imprecision inherent in real world mathematics, and the need to prepare for field modifications.
