The Olympic Pool

On Thursday 12th July, year 3 and 4 solved an Olympic themed maths problem about perimeter and area.

Setting the context

He’d been working on it for weeks and now it was finally done.  Barry the Builder had finally finished the Olympic Swimming Pool.  ‘They’ll love it! It’s a rectangular heaven.  All I need now is some rope to go round the edge.  I’ll just give Lewis Class a ring. ‘

‘Miss Stone, it’s Barry.  I’ve finished the pool.  I want to order some rope to go around the edge.’

‘Sure.  What size do you need? ‘

Well the pool is 36m squared.’

‘No problem, I’ll cut four pieces and bring them over.’

Later that day the rope arrived.  Barry the Builder was not very happy.  ‘Hang on, the pieces of rope don’t fit.’  They’re the wrong size!’

Miss Stone was confused.  ‘But you said the area was 36 metres squared so I bought along two four four-metre pieces and two 9 metre pieces, and 9 x 4 = 36!’

Yes 9 x 4 is 36, but my pool isn’t 9 metres by 4 metres.  The sides have different measurements!’

‘What?  Oh, my head’s swimming now!’

The Problem