A goat's path

A goat's path

Pencil and paper
Overview
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Further Resources
This task is about drawing a pathway of motion.

A goat is tied to the corner of a closed barn. Use a compass to draw the outside limit of where the goat can go. The goat can not go inside the barn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Level:
5
Curriculum info: 
Maths, Geometry and Measurement, Position and orientation
Keywords: 
locus, loci, pathway, drawing
Description of task: 
Students use a compass to draw the path (locus) that a goat, on a rope tied to a corner of barn, makes around the barn.
Answers/responses: 

 

Y11 (03/2000)

Correctly draws the locus as shown. [It is one large three-quarter arc of a circle and two one-quarter arcs.]

Draws a circle (or at least three-quarters of the arc of a circle) with the corner of the barn as the centre and the length of the rope as the radius, but the locus is not bent around the corner of the barn.

difficult


easy