This is a repost of a problem from several years ago. This time I am including an interactive document that you can use to move your toothpicks around and create your figures. First, make sure you are signed in with a Google/gmail account - otherwise you will be able to see the document but can't make your own copy. Open the document and then under the "file" menu, click "make a copy" to make your own copy: Toothpick Perimeter document
Here's the problem:
Notice that you can make figures with toothpicks. We can think of each toothpick as a unit of length. Below I made a figure with a perimeter of 12 and an area of 9:
Question: How many different areas can be made with the same perimeter of 12? (Notice that we can make a perimeter of 8 simply by "bending in" a corner of the figure. The area is smaller but the perimeter is the same.) What is the smallest area you can make with 12 toothpicks? The largest? Can you make every whole number in between?
(This activity was inspired by a puzzle in Kordemsky's The Moscow Puzzles.)
For the solution, click "Read More" below.
