Try to keep the pipe short. Learners investigate where to place a water pump to use the least amount of pipe. Scholars use their knowledge of reflections and congruent triangles to find the best location for the water pump. Finally, they determine the intersection of a line with the x-axis to find the placement of the pump.

Concepts

congruent triangles, reflections, distance, distance formula, collinear, farming, irrigation

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Additional Tags

math

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Instructional Ideas

• Lead a discussion on why it does not matter which vegetable is reflected to find the optimum location
• Consider reviewing how to find the equation of a line given two points

Classroom Considerations

• The class should be familiar with the Pythagorean Theorem, triangle congruence, and reflections

Pros

• Provides a technology-based optional extension
• Includes a rubric for pupils and teachers to use as a checklist 

Cons

• None

Common Core

MP1 MP5 MP6 8.G.B.8 HSG-CO.A.2 HSG-CO.B.8 HSG-SRT.B.5