Question

A battalion of soldiers wanted to have a parade forming a square design with 1,536 soldiers. Is it possible? If not how many more soldiers are needed for this arrangement.

Answer 1

Answer:

Step-by-step explanation:

1536 is not a perfect square, but has an irrational square root

of about 39.19.  Therefore it is not a perfect square and so it  

is impossible to have a square array with 1536 soldiers.  The  

closest larger perfect square to 1536 is 40� or 1600. So  

1600-1536 or 64 soldiers are needed.  

There will be 40 soldiers on each side of the square, so there

will be 1 less space between soldiers on each side of the square

than there are soldiers on each side.  So there are 39 2-meter

spaces between soldiers, so each side will be 39�2 or 78 meters

long.  So the area of the square will be 78� or 6084 square  

meters.

Edwin