Cow pasture

Geometry Level 4

A farmer wants to fence a cow pasture on a riverbank. He has a wire fence with a total length of l = 224.1 m l = 224.1 \,\text{m} available. The beginning and end point of the fence (points P P and Q Q ) are fixed in advance and have a distance d = 42.8 m d = 42.8 \,\text{m} from each other. The farmer can choose an arbitrary shape for the cow pasture. What is the maximum possible area A A of the pasture? Give the answer in square meters and round it to the next integer.


The answer is 5589.

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1 solution

This problem is special case for an isoperimetric problem. The shape, that maximizes the area for a given perimeter, is a circle. Therefore, we can sketch the solution as follows: For a circle with radius r r and a triangular segement with angle 2 ϕ 2 \phi we can rewrite the quantities d d and l l by d = 2 r sin ϕ l = 2 ( π ϕ ) r d l = sin ϕ π ϕ 0.19099 \begin{aligned} d &= 2 r \sin \phi \\ l &= 2 (\pi - \phi) r \\ \Rightarrow \quad \frac{d}{l} &= \frac{\sin \phi}{\pi - \phi} \approx 0.19099 \end{aligned} The numerical solution for ϕ \phi results ϕ 0.523609 3 0 \phi \approx 0.523609 \approx 30^\circ Therefore, r d r \approx d and A = ( π ϕ + sin ϕ cos ϕ ) r 2 ( 5 6 π + 3 4 ) r 2 5589 m 2 A = (\pi - \phi + \sin \phi \cos \phi) r^2 \approx \left( \frac{5}{6} \pi + \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} \right) r^2 \approx 5589\,\text{m}^2

I believe that we want the fence to be the arc of a circle. Do you have a proof, or a reference?

Jon Haussmann - 3 years, 6 months ago

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A rigorous proof is very complicated because you need the calculus of variations. The first proof was also first found by Steiner in 1841, although the problem has been known since antiquity. If you are interested, you can read his proof here .

Markus Michelmann - 3 years, 6 months ago

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I've already seen a proof of the Isoperimetric Theorem. I meant do you have a proof for this case, where you have points P P and Q Q that are a fixed distance apart?

Jon Haussmann - 3 years, 6 months ago

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