HAPPY CHRISTMAS 2010




Christmas Tables

It's Christmas Day and Carol has many people for dinner. She is wondering which table will be best to use.


Which has the largest area, the red or the green?

Press the 'play' button to see the answer.

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Keywords: Starter | Mensuration | Shape | Xmas

  • Transum At Christmas,
  • Monday, November 23, 2009
  • "Transum would like to wish all of you a very merry Christmas and we look forward to welcoming you back to use these starters in the new year. Have a great holiday and enjoy the festivities."
  • Renee, Georgia
  • Friday, December 18, 2009
  • "My third graders have worked on area and perimeter time and again, but they still get them confused. I used my digital projector to show the problem and they worked in cooperative groups to solve it. Each person had a role: recorder, reporter, runner (allowed to move away from the group to get whatever they needed to solve the problem), and reasoner (had to double check the group's solution for mathematical reasoning). One of the groups determined that the area for the tables was the same after their runner measured the length and width of the tables. The others groups were not convinced until they saw the red tabletop flip onto the green. Since similar problems that we've solved were trying to seat more guests (perimeter), your problem gave us the opportunity to discuss the need for a larger table (area) to put more food out at once. As you can see, I still have my work cut out for me, but the problem provided a great learning opportunity for my students."

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This starter has scored a mean of 3.2 out of 5 based on 38 votes.
 

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Answers

Amazingly not only do the red and green shapes have the same area; they are also congruent!

This is of course an optical illusion and ignores perspective.



 

This starter was inspired by a Betty Edwards drawing

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