A spaceship playhouse - Math Central

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Question from Dave:

I would like to build a spaceship playhouse for my grandson I want it to
be about 36" around and I want to use 5/4 decking boards that measure
5 1/2" wide how do I figure out how to lay out a base pattern to nail to
(what angle do I need to cut and how many boards will it take to go around
the circle.

Hi Dave,

You could do it this way with 6 boards.

hexagon

This give an inside perimeter of 5.5 × 6 = 33 inches. If you use 7 boards around the base then the inside perimeter would be 5.5 × 7 = 38.5 inches

heptagon

I hope this helps,
Penny







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