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Burgin - Hallam 1
Part 1 - Introduction
When you think of a building, how many sides does it have? Many people would think of
a regular four sided building, but one millionaire dreams bigger than that. She wants a house that
is one of a kind - one where she can go into the basement and feel as if she is walking on water.
An eighteen sided tower with an aquarium built into the basement floor may be just the house
that the millionaire is looking for. She hired two architects to build the tower using concrete and
Plexiglass. While constructing the eighteen sided tower on a 39x39 square foot plot, the
architects will find the volume and surface area of the tower, and give a cost analysis of the
materials to the millionaire.
Part 2 - An Eighteen Sided Polygon Maximized on the Plot
To use the maximum amount of area allowed on the plot, one must know how to
maximize a shape on a piece of land. To do this, the number of sides has to be divided by 4. If
the number is divisible by 4, then two of the edges will be touching the plot edges, and if the
number is not divisible by 4, then two of the vertices will be touching the plot edges. In this case,
the 18 sided polygon is not divisible by 4, so two vertices will be touching the edge of the 33
foot by 33 foot building area. This means that the length from vertex to vertex across the polygon
will be 33 feet. When this is divided by 2, it is found that the length from the center of the 18-gon
to any vertex is 16.5 feet.
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Figure 2. Polygon 1
Figure 2 shows the largest of the four polygons. Its area can be found using the formula
Area=(apothem)(perimeter) or by finding the area of one triangle and multiplying it by 18. To
use the first method, one must find one side of the polygon and the apothem, or the line forming
a right angle from the center to any side of the polygon. Because two of the vertices land on the
33 foot inner square, it is already known that the length from the center to any vertex is 16.5 feet.
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Figure 4. Polygon 2
This figure shows polygon 2. Polygon 2 was used as the base shape for the outside of the
towers walls.
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Figure 5. Area of Polygon 2
To find the area of polygon 2, which is 1 foot inward from polygon 1, 1 ft was subtracted
from the apothem of polygon 1 to find the apothem of polygon 2. The apothem of polygon 2 is
16.5 * Cos(10o) - 1 ft or 15.25 ft. To find the side length of polygon 2, tangent can be used. Using
the 10 angle, one can find that tan(10) = side/16.5 * cos(10) - 1. In this case, the side
would be opposite the 10 angle and the apothem, which is 16.5 * cos(10) - 1, would be
adjacent to the 10 angle. Because this equation is solving for side, this result can be
multiplied by two to find the length of one side. One side is found to be 33 * cos(10) - 1 *
tan(10). When these values are plugged in to the area formula, A = * apothem * perimeter, the
area of polygon 2 is found to be 738.06 ft2.
Figure 6. Polygon 3
This figure shows a drawing of polygon 3. Polygon 3 was used as a base shape for the
inside of the walls of the tower. The inside of the walls are 1 foot away from the outside of the
walls (polygon 2).
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Figure 8. Polygon 4
Figure 8 shows a drawing of polygon 4. Polygon 4 is used along with polygon 1 to build
the footing under the tower. It is also used as a reference as to where the Plexiglass floor is to be
built.
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Figure 9 shows the steps to finding the area of polygon 4. The apothem is found by
subtracting 3 feet from the apothem of polygon 1. This is because each polygon is 1 foot inward
from the last, so polygon 4 is 3 feet away from polygon 1. To find the area, the apothem and
perimeter need to be found. The length of one side, which is needed to find the perimeter, can be
found using tangent (opposite / adjacent). Using the tangent of 10, of the length of one side
can be found. Using this method, the length of side is 16.5 * cos(10) - 3 * tan(10) feet. This
length is multiplied by 2 to find that the length of one side is 33 * cos(10) - 6 * tan(10) feet.
The perimeter is found by multiplying the length of one side by 18. The apothem and perimeter
can be plugged into the area formula, A = * perimeter * apothem, to find that the area of
polygon 4 is 557.16 feet2.
Part 3 - Volume of the Concrete, Plexiglass, and Water
The footing of a building is an important part of keeping the building safe and sturdy. In
the case, the footing extends from polygon 1 to polygon 4 and is 3.5 feet deep. Because the
footing is a prism, its volume can be found by multiplying the area of the base and the height.
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extends from polygon 1 to polygon 4, so the area of its base can be found by subtracting the area
of polygon 4 from the area of polygon 1. When the areas are subtracted, it is found that the area
of the base of the footing is (4900.5 * sin(10) * cos(10)) - (297 * cos(10o) 54 * tan(10o) *16.5
* cos(10o) - 3) ft2, which is approximately equal to 280.68 square feet. The height of the footing,
which is 3.5 feet, is multiplied by the area of the base to find the volume. This gives the result
that the volume of the footing is (4900.5 * sin(10) * cos(10)) - (297 * cos(10) 54 * tan(10)
*16.5 * cos(10) - 3) * 3.5 ft3, or approximately 983.07 cubic feet.
To give the effect of walking on water, the millionaire wants the floor in the basement to
be made of Plexiglass. The Plexiglass will overlook the aquarium that is built into the basement
floor. The Plexiglass is to be 4 inches thick, and it corresponds with polygon 4.
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Figure 14. The Aquarium
Figure 14 shows the aquarium under the basement floor. The aquarium is a prism, and its
base has the same dimensions as polygon 4. The aquarium is 3.5 feet deep, but only 75% of the
space is to be filled with water.
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This figure shows the drawing of a face of the outer pyramid, or the outer roof of the
tower. The face is an isosceles triangle with the height rt(16.5 * cos(10) - 1)2+ ((99 * cos(10) 6) * tan(10))2 feet, and a base that is (33 * cos(10) - 2) * tan(10) feet. The triangle can be split
into two right triangles, and the tangent function can be used to find the angles of these triangles.
Figure 32. Base Angle of One Lateral Face of the Outer Pyramid
This figure shows how to use tangent to find the base angle of the isosceles triangle that
is one face. In this figure, is representing the base angle. The slant height of the pyramid is
used as the opposite side from the angle, and of the base is used as the adjacent side to the
angle. The base angle was found to be approximately 83.09. Because the face is an isosceles
triangle, both base angles are the same.
Figure 33. Top Angle of One Lateral Face of the Outer Pyramid
The top angle of the triangle can be found using tangent. To do this, of the angle has to
be found, then it can be multiplied by 2. In this figure, of the angle is represented by , and the
angle is represented by x. The tangent function can be used to solve for of the angle, using
of the base as the opposite side and the height of the triangle as the adjacent side. When the angle
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found is multiplied by 2, the full top angle of the face is found to be 13.81. This can be checked
by adding together this angle and the two base angles together and making sure they equal 180.
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35, which is in Part 7. When these two areas are added together, the total surface area is found to
be approximately 2093.98 square feet.
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