Chapter 15

Geometric Modeling and Design

Your school has a patch of ground for a new garden. Before anyone buys soil or builds a fence, you want to know whether there will be room for beds and paths. The edge bends around a tree, and the sketch on your desk leaves out some of the details you see outside. Geometric modeling gives you a way to test a design on paper. What would you need to know before you could trust that design enough to build it?

What You'll Explore

3 lessons.

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1. 1
   Building and Checking a Geometric Model →

   Done Skipped Revisit Clear ▾

   Suppose you sketch a garden with a curved edge and report its widths to the nearest tenth of a meter. How might that rounding affect the area you predict with familiar shapes, and what could you measure separately to check the model?

2. 2
   Density and Scale Models →

   Done Skipped Revisit Clear ▾

   On a map, two districts of the same size can have different populations. On a garden plan, a raised bed fits under your hand. How could you compare the districts and use the plan to estimate the mass of soil for the real bed?

3. 3
   Designing Under Constraints →

   Done Skipped Revisit Clear ▾

   With a fixed budget for fencing, you can try several garden layouts that fit the space. How could you tell which one leaves the most room for planting, and would your choice change if one side of the garden already had a fence?