Name ____________________________________________________

Date _________

Period ___

Area of My Space Project

Introduction When you were younger (before Geometry) to find the area of a shape, you would draw a grid on top of the shape and count the number of boxes. Then you learned formulas for areas of many shapes and just plugged in numbers. If you take Calculus next year, youll be able to integrate to find the area of shapes with complex curves. In this class, you have learned enough to find the area of any shape that you can build out of triangles. You can actually build any polygon out of triangles, so this covers a good number of shapes. Goal First you must find the area of a plot of land, house, or part of a house that interests you. It can be where you live, where you work, where you want to live, where you want to work, or any place on Earth that particularly interests you. You goal is to find the size (area) of this piece of land and to convince a person who is interested in this land that you accurately measured its size. Requirements You must use 2 of the 3 formulas in the endeavor: Law of Sines Law of Cosines Trig Area Formula for a Triangle Because of the above requirement, it might seem silly to find the area of a rectangular plot of land, so I would recommend finding one that might have a more complex shape. You must write (may be typed) a report explaining what you did to calculate the area and convince a person interested in the land how much space there is. Detailed diagrams are virtually required here. Remember that A picture is worth a thousand words. You can think about whom might be interested in the land: a potential buyer, a census/surveyor, a contractor hired to construct something, a renovator, or even a person from the IRS. Tools You will probably want to use Google maps and any website that measures distances given latitude and longitude coordinates. You may also use Geogebra, protractors, rulers, or measuring tape (on site!). If you would like to use another tool not listed above, please ask Mr. Newman first. Grading You will be graded on the accuracy of your measurements, how well you explain the procedure and the math you used, and the convincingness of your argument.

Due Date _____________________________________