The students will first need to calculate the total area of the court in square metres. The court is 15 metres wide by 30 metres long, so the total area is 15 x 30 = 450 square metres. Questions 1b and 1d are fairly straightforward. Each third is 10 x 15 = 150 square metres (or a third of the total area: 1/3 of 450 is 150 square metres). To work out the area of the shooting circles for questions 1a and 1c, the students will have to count squares and parts of squares. They will find that each shooting circle is about 10 square metres. This is close to the area of the shooting circle calculated
using the formula πr² (9.8 square metres).
For question 2, the students need to express as a percentage the areas of the court that each player can go into. For example, for question 2c, the players can go into two-thirds of the court minus the shooting circle. This is (2 x 150) – 10 = 300 – 10 = 290. The students could calculate the percentage as follows: 290 ÷ 450 x 100 = 64.4%.

Answers to Activity

1. a. approximately 10 m²
b. 150 m²
c. approximately 140 m²
d. 150 m²
2. a. 33% (rounded)
b. 67% (rounded)
c. 64% (rounded)
d. 96% (rounded)