Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Elizabeth Evers
Justine Hickey
9C GAT
Scot Acre
6-1-15
Introduction:
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When you think of tower many images may flash through your head. You may
see the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or many other iconic towers. But since
you picked TowerTec to build your custom tower my business partner Elizabeth and I
want you to imagine one of our custom towers, specifically the underwater themed
tower you requested. Since you are such a high priority client, Elizabeth and I will be
handling all of your specific dimensions, math, and the construction of your tower. We
will now in detail go over all of the specifics of your tower so you can better understand
the method to our madness. If you have any further questions please e-mail us at
TowerTec@build.com. Once more thank you for picking our company for your tower
needs.
The first thing we must do to start your tower is find the best way to maximize the
plot of 23 by 23 with our 14 sided polygon. But since the city we are building in requires
any structure must be at least 3 feet away from any property lines it becomes a little
more difficult. So we now took 23 and subtracted 6 from it to get out new plot size of 17
by 17. Now to maximize the plot, we started in the exact center of it and went until we
hit a side, but since we have a hexagonal polygon we had to make sure the other sides
did not touch the property lines. The next steps are finding the central angle of the 14-
gon, the length of of one side and the height of the triangle used to find area. Then we
must find the area of every polygon to help with any further calculations.
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The figure above shows all four polygons put together in the base and it also
shows them separated out into their individual polygons. Also each individual polygon is
Area of Polygon 1:
Finding the area of polygon one is done by creating a triangle inside of the
polygon like the ones seen above in figure 1. Next you drop a height down the middle
and label it Y then label the other legX the full base will be 2X. Then label the
hypotenuse 8.5 because if you divide 17 by 2 you will get 8.5. Also label the half
cos(12.86)=X/8.5
8.5*cos(12.86)=X/8.5*8.5
8.5*cos(12.86)=X
1.82=X
Now to find the height of this triangle we must use the hypotenuse and our angle
of 12.86.
sin(12.86)=Y/8.5
8.5*sin(12.86)=Y/8.5*8.5
8.5*sin(12.86)=Y
8.29=Y
Figure 4. Height of Polygon 1
Now with all this new information, you must find the area of the triangle and
Area of Polygon 2:
Finding the area of polygon 2 is quite similar to finding the area of polygon 1, so
let us get started. Remember the angle remains the same for each triangle. We first
found the height by just subtracting one from the height of polygon 1 because each
8.29-1=7.29
Figure 6. Height of Polygon 2
Now that the height of 7.29 has been found we next found the side length of
tan(12.86)=X/7.29
7.29*tan(12.86)=X/7.29*7.29
7.29*tan(12.86)=X
1.66=X
Now that we have the height of the helper triangle and its base/side length of
polygon 2, we can now find the area of polygon 2 using the same formula as polygon 1.
Area of Polygon 3:
Honestly, to find the area of polygon 3 all we had to do was the same thing as
Now we found the base of our helper triangle using the trig function tangent
(NOT tan). Also remember that angle does not change in any of these polygons.
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tan(12.86)=X/6.29
6.29*tan(12.86)=X/6.29*6.29
6.29*tan(12.86)=X
1.44=X
Now we need to find the area using the equation 14(1/2*b*h)= area of polygon.
Area of Polygon 4:
Once again finding the area is exactly the same just with the new numbers.
Now that we have the new height we must find the base of the helper triangle or
the side of the 14-gon. This is once again done by using the trig function tangent.
tan(12.86)=X/5.29
5.29*tan(12.86)=X/5.29*5.29
5.29*tan(12.86)=X
1.22=X
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We finally found the area of polygon 4 to be 89.32ft 2. We can now move forward
at this point to the other calculations because we now have the area of our 4 polygons.
To have structurally sound building, a concrete footing is need. The footing has to
be 3.5 feet tall, 3 feet wide and goes around that area between Polygon 1 and 4,
Figure 15, shows what the concrete footing looks like. To find the volume use the
formula v=(area of the base)*height and the area of the base is the (area of polygon 1 -
Figure 16, show the math done to come with the volume of the footing to be
455.42 ft3. Now that we determined the volume, the amount of concrete need can be
measured. Concrete comes in a bag, $115 per cubic yard. To determine the price and
number of bags we first need to convert the area from feet to yard so the floor is divided
by 27. Since 16.87 is the amount needed we have to round to 17 bags because it can
Figure 17, shows the calculations done to get the amount of Concrete needed to
Above the footing is the floor which extends over Polygon 4. The floor is 4 inches
Figure 18, shows what the floor looks like. First thing is to find volume of the floor.
The same formula will be used as it was used to find the volume of the footing.
Figure 19, show how the floors volume was calculated. is used because the
area is originally in feet while the height is in inches, so it has to converted by 4/12
find the how much Plexiglas is needed and costs. The Plexiglas is sold $1100 per
48 * 96 * 4.
Figure 20, shows how the amount and price of the Plexiglas was calculated.
52177.60 is the flooring in inches and 18432 is all the dimensions multiplied together.
Those are divided to get an amount of 2.83. Plexiglas cant be bought specifically by an
amount so 2.83 round to 3 sheets of Plexiglas at the Price of $3300. Lastly the amount
of water in the aquarium can be measured. Only 75% of the tank will be filled with water
so the volume of the tank will be multiplied by .75 to find the volume of just to water
needed.
Figure 21, shows the volume of water in the Aquarium. Therefore the volume is
234.45 ft3.
Figure 22, above, shows polygon three which is base of our outer prism. In this
section we will explain the lateral surface area of the average side and the lateral
surface area of the two sides that contain the door and window.
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This is an image of the average side, finding the dimensions for this were rather
basic. The smaller side is 3.33 because that side is touching polygon 3 which has side
lengths of 3.33. Then the side is 6.65 because you asked for the height of the side to
Figure 24, above, shows that the lateral surface area of a regular side.
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The figure above shows what the side with the door will look like. we now must
find the lateral surface area of the wall surrounding the door.
The first step to this is finding the area of the square part, shown above, which
Above is how to find the area of the top of the door. You may be wondering why
we used 7 and that because the top is exactly half of the 14-gon.
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Now that we have the full doors surface area we must subtract it from the
We got the lateral surface area of the wall with out the door to be 3.78ft 2.
The figure above is an image of what the wall would look like if it had a window
on it. We now need to find the surface area of the wall not covered by the window.
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The surface area of the window is 6.8ft2. Now that we have that we must subtract
it from the total side to get the lateral surface area of the side.
We eventually found the lateral surface area of the wall without the window to be
15.38ft2. For the final step we found the lateral surface area of the outer prism.
The dimensions of the lateral sides are 3.33 ft by 6.65 ft because the height of
the face is twice the side length of Polygon 2, which is 3.33 ft making the height 6.65 ft.
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Now that the measures of the lateral sides of have been determined the volume
of the inner base prism can be found. This will also be used to find the whole volume of
this wonderful tower. The volume formula (V = area of the base * height)
Figure 36, shows what the base of the Inner Base Prism Looks like and figure 35
shows the math that was done to find the volume. The volume on bottom part of the
Figure 37, above, indicates what the outer parts and measurements of the
pyramid are. The outer height is 9.99 ft because you, the buyer, asked for the height to
be three times the length of one side which is 3.33 ft. Therefore making the height
9.99 ft.
Next, the slant height measure needs to be found. Since the height (9.99 ft done
above) and the other leg (7.29 ft done in Part 2) is known, the Pythagorean Theorem
Pythagorean Theorem = a2 + b2 = c2
9.992 + 7.292 = c2
152.94 = c
12.36 = c
Figure 38. Slant Height of a Lateral Face
Figure 38, shows how the slant height was calculated. The slant height is
12.36 ft.
Lastly the angle measure between the pyramid base and the one lateral face of
the pyramid at the slant height can be found. To find the angle measure a trigonometric
function, tan-1, will be used. Tangent is used because the opposite measure and the
adjacent measure is known but any other trigonometric function could have been used.
= tan-1(9.99/7.29)
= 53.86
Figure 39. Angle Measure
Figure 39, shows how the angle measure was found using a trigonometric
Figure 40, above, shows the lengths and angle measures for a face of the outer
pyramid. We will now explain how to find all of those lengths and angle measures.
Well the base of the pyramid is 3.33 because it is connected to polygon 2 which
has side lengths of 3.33. The height of the triangle is 12.37 feet because that is the
slant height which was previously found in part 6. Now it is time to explain how to find
=tan-1(12.37/1.66)
=82.36
Figure 42. Finding The Angle Measure
In Figure 42, above, uses the trig function inverse tangent to find the angle to be
82.36.
2=180-(90+82.36)
=7.64
Figure 43. Finding The Angle Measure
In Figure 43, above, we used our basic knowledge of geometry to find the
answer to be 7.64 which when doubled to fit the whole triangle it comes out to be
15.28. Now it is time to find the lateral surface area for the one triangle.
Area=1/2*b*h
=1/2 * 3.33 * 12.37
=20.55ft2
Figure 44. Area of One Triangle
The figure above shows the area of one triangle at 20.55ft 2, we now need to find
Figure 46, shows what the inner and outer pyramids look like put together. The
height of the inner pyramid is 8.61 because, just like in part 6, you, the buyer, would like
the height to be three times one side length the of the base.
Lastly, the volume of the inner pyramid needs to be found to in order to find the
the volume of your whole tower. The volume formula for a pyramid (v = * area of the
Figure 47, shows the calculations behind finding the volume of of the top inner
My Tower:
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Figure 48, above, shows the whole tower drawn in the Sketchup program. As you
can see if there are dotted lines for side on the far side of the tower. But, in this section
we will show you the total lateral surface area of the outer tower and the volume of the
The lateral surface area for the whole tower came out to be 597.53ft 2. As you can
see all the measurements were found previously and just reused.
The volume of the inner tower came out to be 1203.69ft 3. Also please note again
all the measurements above were previously found they are currently just being reused.
Conclusion:
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Thank you again for picking TowerTec for your tower needs. Your custom
underwater tower will soon be completed. The construction is progressing smoothly and
we hope you enjoy your brand new spacious tower. We are completing the finishing
touches and the decorations. We hope you can stop by on June 1st and look at our final
product. Thank you Mrs. Copeland, you were a pleasure to work with.
Sincerly,