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A Horse Tied To A Barn (Posted on 2005-04-02) Difficulty: 2 of 5
In a large and flat grass field, there is a 30x30 feet square barn facing due North. Straight from the NorthEast corner of the barn is a fence running due East 40 feet long. There is a horse tied on the SouthEast corner of the barn with a rope that will allow him to eat grass in any direction up to 100 feet. The horse can't eat under the barn, and the rope can't pass through the barn or through the fence. The horse can walk around the barn or the fence, but is limited by the length of the rope.

How many square feet of grass can the horse reach?

(I found this problem pretty interesting, but I am not the author and have no idea who is the author).

  Submitted by Michael Cottle    
Rating: 4.1667 (6 votes)
Solution: (Hide)
There is a right triangle formed on the East side with the barn fence and the rope as the hyp. There is also 4 partial circles formed around the barn.

However, the partial circles on the North side overlap to form 2 different sized overlapping circles. But upon a closer look, there is an underlying obtuse triangle with sides length 40, 50, and 70 (the length of the barn and fence) in which the area can be found with Heron's formula or other simple methods!

If you solve for the angles, triangles and add up all of these areas you have approximately going clockwise from the large South portion...
18,925 + 3,848 + 637 + 980 (obtuse triangle) + 2,380 + 600 (right triangle on East side)

which equals apporximately 27,370 feet squared.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
AnswerK Sengupta2008-10-06 00:15:21
re: No SubjectCharley2005-05-27 00:32:45
A Horse Tied To A barnollie2005-05-20 16:41:29
No Subjectnoel thompson2005-04-09 03:45:15
re: exact answerCharlie2005-04-06 16:12:51
exact answerJohn Reid2005-04-05 18:21:04
I like making picturesJer2005-04-04 17:56:26
SolutionSame answer, different sol'nnikki2005-04-04 16:38:36
SolutionsolutionCharlie2005-04-03 04:39:49
Hints/TipsBasic stepsTomM2005-04-03 04:17:07
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