|
BEAVER BOARDS
While most fur bearing animals in Alaska are skinned
whole and stretched long, beaver are split down the belly
and stretched round.
Trappers make a beaver board of several planks nailed
together. They draw circles on the beaver boards to show
where to stretch the skin in order to keep the round shape
and get top dollar for the
fur.
|
|
Henry
couldn't figure why a superblanket beaver (very large) was worth so
much more than a blanket. He figured that there was only a few inches
difference between the 68" superblanket and the 60" blanket
beaver.
These measurements represent the sum of the length plus the
width.
When he took high school math he realized. The area of a circle is
equal to pi (π)times the square of the radius.
A radius that is a little larger gives a much bigger area
because the area is determined by the square of the
radius.
How many square inches of fur are in a 60" blanket
beaver?
Watch out! 60" is the sum of the diameters, length plus width, not
the sum of the radii. First find the radius of the beaver
skin.
How many square inches of fur are in a 68" superblanket?
He used to think the fur buyers were cheating him on his blanket
beaver. After doing the math, he realized that there is a big
difference in the area of a blanket and the area of a superblanket
beaver.
|
 Beaver
skin stretched on
the smokehouse
|
|
Ask the elders in your community how they made a compass to draw
the circles on a beaver board.
Return to Village Math