The park ranger is fencing in an area that is 24 ft wide and 36 ft long. The fence posts will be 3 ft apart. How many fence posts will he need?
BE SURE TO USE EQUATIONS FOR THIS PROBLEM.
The number of posts for the long (length = L) sides is 2 L/3. That will provide the posts between the corners, plus one corner post for each side.
The number of posts (N) for the narrow (width = W) sides is 2 W/3. Add the two terms for the answer.
N = (2/3)(L + W)
Corner posts will not be double-counted. Plug in the numbers for L and W.
To find the number of fence posts needed, we first need to calculate the perimeter of the fenced area.
The perimeter of a rectangle can be found using the formula:
Perimeter = 2 * (length + width)
Given that the length is 36 ft and the width is 24 ft, we can substitute these values into the formula:
Perimeter = 2 * (36 + 24)
Now, we need to find the distance between each fence post. Given that the fence posts will be placed 3 ft apart, we can divide the perimeter by 3 to find the total number of fence posts needed:
Number of fence posts = Perimeter / distance between posts
Substituting the values, we have:
Number of fence posts = (2 * (36 + 24)) / 3
Simplifying the equation, we have:
Number of fence posts = (2 * 60) / 3
Finally, performing the calculation:
Number of fence posts = 120 / 3 = 40
Therefore, the park ranger will need 40 fence posts.