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Oakridge Elementary School is designing a new 9-hole miniature golf course for their school fair. They drew a plan for the course on grid paper, showing the tee area (▲) and hole (●) for each of the 9 holes.
The distance between grid lines is 5 meters, and the center of each tee area and hole is placed either on a grid line or halfway between two grid lines.
The length of a hole is the distance from the center of the tee area to the center of the hole.
The total length of the course is the sum of the lengths of all 9 holes, not including the distances between holes.
Calculate the total length of the miniature golf course the school is planning to build.
Let’s calculate the length of each hole by counting the number of grid squares between its tee area and hole. Remember, each full grid square represents 5 meters, and half a square represents 2.5 meters.
| Hole Number | Grid Squares | Calculation | Length (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 3 × 5 | 15 |
| 2 | 2 | 2 × 5 | 10 |
| 3 | 4 | 4 × 5 | 20 |
| 4 | 1.5 | 1.5 × 5 | 7.5 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 × 5 | 25 |
| 6 | 1 | 1 × 5 | 5 |
| 7 | 4.5 | 4.5 × 5 | 22.5 |
| 8 | 2 | 2 × 5 | 10 |
| 9 | 3.5 | 3.5 × 5 | 17.5 |
To find the total length of the course, we sum up all the individual hole lengths:
15 + 10 + 20 + 7.5 + 25 + 5 + 22.5 + 10 + 17.5 = 132.5 meters
Therefore, the total length of the miniature golf course is 132.5 meters.
Alternative method:
We can add up the total number of grid squares and multiply by 5:
Full squares: 3 + 2 + 4 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 4 + 2 + 3 = 25
Half squares: 0.5 + 0.5 + 0.5 = 1.5
Total squares: 25 + 1.5 = 26.5
Total length: 26.5 × 5 = 132.5 meters
This confirms our calculation.
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