A2 Thinking Skills - Problem Solving

Assignment 4 - Question 2

This question should only take about 30 minutes to complete.

Study the following evidence and answer the questions which follow. Show your working.

A cage is to be built to house some exotic birds. It is to be built against a wall, as shown in the
diagram, and thus needs 12 struts altogether and netting on four sides (i.e. the three vertical
faces and the roof). The structure must be in the shape of a cuboid and have dimensions which
are whole numbers of metres.

20 m

height

15 m

length
width

Physical constraints

Throughout this question all your answers must abide by the following three constraints.

• The wall is 15 metres high and 20 metres long.

• There is 600 m2 of netting available.
• The smallest strut which can be used for the framework is 9 metres long, so none of the
dimensions of the cage can be less than this.

Desirable outcome

For part (d) of this question you will also need to consider the following additional outcome.

• For animal welfare reasons the cage should have a volume of 1900 m3 or more.

The final design of the cage will fulfill this desirable outcome, but the process of designing the
cage may involve considering dimensions which do not do this.

An example of the dimensions of a cage which could be made from the netting, but which does
not fit the animal welfare consideration, is given below. Note that the dimension referred to as
‘length’ is that which is parallel to the wall.
 2

Example

Length: 11 m
Width: 12 m
Height: 13 m

Area of netting required: roof = 12 × 11 = 132 m2

front = 13 × 11 = 143 m2
sides = 2 × ( 13 × 12 ) = 312 m2
TOTAL = 587 m2 (which is within specified limit of netting area)
3
Volume = 13 × 12 × 11 = 1716 m (which does not satisfy the specified limit of cage
volume)

(a) If a cage with dimensions 10m, 11m and 15m was to be constructed, what is the smallest
total area of netting that would be needed? [2]

These dimensions are not specified as length, width or height, so you might need to try all
combinations BUT you can save so much time by realising that since there are two sides these
must be the minimum dimensions of 10 and 11 (which one is which doesn't actually matter because
you will get the same result!) and length must be 15m ...
L = 15m, W = 11m and H = 10m ... so area of netting needed is:
Roof = 15 x 11 = 165m2 , Front = 10 x 15 = 150m2 and Sides = 2 x (11 x 10) = 220m2
and so SMALLEST TOTAL NETTING AREA = 535m2

(b) Consider possible cages which are of the same height as the wall. What is the maximum
length that the cage can be? Justify your answer [3]

The height of the wall is 15m and must remain constant. To maximise the length, the width must
be a minimum which is 9m and it must remain at this throughout.
The length can be up to 20m so use trial and error starting with these ...
L = 20m, W = 9m and H = 15m ... so area of netting needed is:
Roof = 20 x 9 = 180m2 , Front = 20 x 15 = 300m2 and Sides = 2 x (9 x 15) = 270m2
and so SMALLEST TOTAL NETTING AREA = 750m2 ... this is way over 600m2 so there is no point
even trying a width of 19m as total area will only come down by 24m2 (think about it ... why?!)
If you can't see this just carry on with trial and error, but what will in fact will happen is that for
each metre that the length decreases, the area decreases by a further 24m2 ... this now makes
the calculation so much easier! So ...
L = 19m and area = 726m2 ; L = 18m and area = 702m2 ; L = 17m and area = 678m2 ;
L = 16m and area = 654m2 ; L = 15m and area = 630m2 ; L = 14m and area = 606m2
and finally for L = 13m and area = 582m2 ... So MAXIMUM LENGTH OF THE CAGE IS 13m
 (c) What is the largest volume cage that can be built with a height of 14 metres? Justify your
answer. [3]
For this question it is still necessary to meet the max netting area of 600m2 criteria.
Height is fixed at 14m, length and width can both vary and volume = L x B x H
So trial and error again ...... but use some of the knowledge you have gained to choose L and W
more carefully, like it's probably pointless using L = 20m!

1. L = 17, W = 9, H = 14 Area of netting = 643m2

2. L = 16, W = 9, H = 14 Area of netting = 620m2
3. L = 15, W = 9, H = 14 Area of netting = 597m2 ... so V = 15 x 9 x 14 = 1890m3
4. L = 15, W = 10, H = 14 Area of netting = 640m2
5. L = 14, W = 10, H = 14 Area of netting = 616m2
6. L = 13, W = 10, H = 14 Area of netting = 592m2 ... so V = 13 x 10 x 14 = 1820m3
7. L = 13, W = 11, H = 14 Area of netting = 633m2
8. L = 12, W = 11, H = 14 Area of netting = 608m2

There is no point in going any further as the L and H dimensions start repeating so the
maximum volume for a height of 14m is 1890m3

(d) Show that it is possible to fulfil the desired animal welfare outcome of a minimum volume of
1900 m3. [2]

Clearly a height of 14m doesn't give you a minimum volume of 1900m3 so try a height of 15m from
part (b).
So far we know that L = 13, W = 9, H = 15 gives an area of 582m2 ... so V = 13 x 9 x 15 = 1755m3
Trying other combinations for W ...
1. L = 13, W = 10, H = 15 Area of netting = 625m2
2. L = 12, W = 10, H = 15 Area of netting = 600m2 ... so V = 12 x 10 x 15 = 1800m3
So clearly a height of 15m isn't going to do it! So bring height down and carry on with trial and
error!

1. L = 15, W = 10, H = 13 Area of netting = 605m2

2. L = 16, W = 10, H = 12 Area of netting = 592m2 ... so V = 16 x 10 x 12 = 1920m3
And finally both criteria are met!!
There are other combinations ... can you find them all??!!

** Part (d) is a classic example of the questions that just take too long to solve, and it's
most often not even worth attempting it for the 2 marks allocated ... rather if you have
time, come back to it at the end**