There was once a very forgetful landscape contractor who was constantly “misrembering” the detailed instructions of his employers. He was always forgetting essential parts of what the customer had intended and instead would substitute his own without realizing it. How he stayed in business as long as he did is a mystery. Here is one example of his forgetfulness:
The customer had a circular plot, 10 meters in radius, that they wished to have a regular hexagon planting of hibiscus inscribed into.
“I’ve place three stakes at equal intervals around the circle that you can use for the non-adjacent vertices of the hexagon”, said the customer. “I’ll leave the rest up to you. I’m sure you can handle it”.
“No problem”, replied the contractor. “I’ll get to work as soon as I can get my equipment back here”.
The contractor returned and proceeded to plant the hibiscus in into a equilateral triangle inside the area bounded by the three stakes.
When the customer came out at the end of the day to check on the work he said, “So far so good. When do you plan to finish?”
“Umm…finish?” replied the contractor.
“Well yes. I had asked for a hexagon and all you have so far is a triangle”, said the customer.
“Oh, Right. I’ll come back tomorrow and plant the rest”, said the contractor.
Question
Prof. Templeton
There was once a very forgetful landscape contractor who was constantly “misrembering” the detailed instructions of his employers. He was always forgetting essential parts of what the customer had intended and instead would substitute his own without realizing it. How he stayed in business as long as he did is a mystery. Here is one example of his forgetfulness:
The customer had a circular plot, 10 meters in radius, that they wished to have a regular hexagon planting of hibiscus inscribed into.
“I’ve place three stakes at equal intervals around the circle that you can use for the non-adjacent vertices of the hexagon”, said the customer. “I’ll leave the rest up to you. I’m sure you can handle it”.
“No problem”, replied the contractor. “I’ll get to work as soon as I can get my equipment back here”.
The contractor returned and proceeded to plant the hibiscus in into a equilateral triangle inside the area bounded by the three stakes.
When the customer came out at the end of the day to check on the work he said, “So far so good. When do you plan to finish?”
“Umm…finish?” replied the contractor.
“Well yes. I had asked for a hexagon and all you have so far is a triangle”, said the customer.
“Oh, Right. I’ll come back tomorrow and plant the rest”, said the contractor.
What was the area he planted the next day?
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