Math Forum - Problem of the Week


Making a Quilt of Squares

I am thinking of making a quilt from an illustration that appeared on the cover of Scientific American magazine a while ago. I need some help figuring a few things out, though.

The picture below illustrates the problem. All I know is that all of the pieces are squares, and that the area of C is 64 square inches and the area of D is 81 square inches. Here's what I need to know:

Will the finished shape be a square? If I want to quilt along all of the lines (including the outside edge), how much thread will I need? (Assume that it takes 1.5 inches of thread to quilt 1 inch of the line.)

 ______________________ ________________
|                      |                |
|                      |                |
|                      |                |
|                      |                |
|                      |                |
|           A          |        B       |
|                      |                |
|                      |                |
|                      |                |
|                      |                |
|                      |_______ ________|
|________________ _____|       |        |
|                |     |   H   |        |
|                |  G  |       |    C   |
|                |_____|_______|        |
|                |        I->|_|________|
|        F       |           |          |
|                |     E     |          |
|                |           |    D     |
|                |           |          |
|________________|___________|__________|


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