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Fun math problem having to do with quadradics!?

A community flower garden is being planned for the spring of 2003. The garden committee has 40 feet of fencing to be placed around the edge of the garden. The committee has two requirements. The garden must be rectangular shape and all edges of the garden must be a whole number measurement. What is the maximum area that this flower garden can occupy?

Public Comments

1. I understand this could use quadratics, but the basic idea in geometry that when all other restrictions do not affect the sides separately, the largest area that has the smallest perimeter (if it is a rectangle) is a square. This means that one side is 40 / 4 = 10. The area is 10 ^ 2 = 100. Isn't this kind of obvious. (Note, if there was no restriction on shape, a circle would be the most efficient shape for this. I saw this as a trick question once.)