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'Lawn Border' printed from https://nrich.maths.org/

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I was trying to imagine what my lawn would look like with a nice paved border around it. So I used some tiles that were all the same size but different colours, to build a little model. This is how it looked:

1

Make some kind of model or picture of your own that shows the same sizes.

Look at the number of tiles for different parts.

I wondered what my border would be like if I changed some of the tiles. I made it like this:

2

What do you notice has changed?

I decided I'd make some more changes to my model garden. I did this.

3

How does this compare with the last one?

I made one last model with some different tiles. Here it is. I liked this one.

4

Have a good look now at the numbers of the different tiles in different places for each of my models.

If I use $12$ tiles to make a lawn, how many tiles would I need to make a border?

How many differently shaped lawns can you make with $12$ tiles?

Do you need a different number of border tiles to go around each lawn shape?

Can you make models to show what the different gardens would look like?