Question

One side of a square flower bed is 16

feet long. How many plants are needed if they are to be spaced 16

inches apart around the outside of the​ bed?

Answer 1

First, we need to find the perimeter of the square flower bed. The perimeter is the total distance around the outside of the square.

Since one side of the square is 16 feet long, then all four sides are also 16 feet long.

Perimeter = 4 x side length
Perimeter = 4 x 16 feet
Perimeter = 64 feet

Next, we need to convert the spacing between the plants from inches to feet, so that we're using the same units for both measurements.

16 inches = 1.33 feet (rounded to two decimal places)

We want to space the plants 1.33 feet apart around the outside of the flower bed. So, we need to divide the perimeter by the spacing to find out how many plants we need.

Number of plants = Perimeter / Spacing
Number of plants = 64 feet / 1.33 feet
Number of plants = 48.12 (rounded up to the nearest whole number)

Therefore, we need approximately 48 plants spaced 16 inches apart around the outside of the square flower bed.