Copyright © University of Cambridge. All rights reserved.
'Tied Up' printed from https://nrich.maths.org/
Show menu
A field is in the shape of a right angled triangle.
At the midpoint of each side is a post. Horace the goat is tied to the midpoint of the hypotenuse.
The two sheep, Sid and Sadie, are tied to the midpoints of the other two sides.
Each rope is just exactly long enough to allow the animal to reach the two vertices on the side to which it is tied.
Which animal can graze the largest area of grass?
What proportion of the field is it able to graze?
You can find more short problems, arranged by curriculum topic, in our short problems collection.