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'Baked Bean Cans' printed from https://nrich.maths.org/
We had many ideas sent in showing that there
were various ways of commenting on the stacking situation. Some
sent in pictures or diagrams. Well done all of you!
Joseph from St Martha's School
wrote;
Start off with a big number of cans at the bottom and put on less
until you run out of cans.
He also sent in this picture.
Rayan from St. James' School
sent in the following;
$1$. The best way to stack cans is to put at least $5$ or $4$
cans.
$2$. The supermarkets stack cans like putting $4$ on the bottom,
$3$ on the lower middle, $2$ on the upper middle and $1$ above to
separate different cans.
$3$. I might safely stack cans up to $10$.
$4$. If you kick it or turn the tray at an angle or pass it to
another person on the ground, then the cans will roll.
$5$. Yes it makes a difference between full and empty because full
is heavy and empty is light.
Tom and Jack from Stonehenge School
said;
We think the best way to stack cans to its highest limit is the
traditional method, the method that people use in fairground
stalls, what you do is put say: five cans at the bottom, then four
on top, then three and so on so on. This is what we think and may
not be true.
Their picture is;
Shamim from Ashcroft Techology Academy
wrote;
The best way to arrange cans is in a pryamid. Pyramids are the
strongest form of support. There are earthquake proof buildings in
the shape of a pyramid because the base of the pyramid is big
enough to hold the rest of the cans on top. If we were to split a
pyramid into squares you can see that for each square above the
first line there are two squares below supporting it.