Grade 3 · Perimeter
Festival lanterns: separate covering from boundary distance
A rectangular plan for a neighborhood festival measures 3 units across and 11 units high. Change the controls and explain what the animation reveals.
Predict what will happen, press Play, then pause and explain what changed. Every control also works without playback.
Watch the relationship
PausedHD animation studio
From experiment to screen.
Present a crisp Canvas scene, save a full-HD image, or capture your model as a silent video.
Understand what you are seeing
The idea behind the motion.
A rectangular plan for a neighborhood festival measures 3 units across and 11 units high. Perimeter is the complete boundary distance. Opposite sides of a rectangle are equal, so add both widths and both heights. Area instead measures the interior covering. The full boundary is 28 length units, while the area is 33 square units. These quantities answer different questions.
A relationship to keep
P = 2(3 + 11) = 28; A = 33
Read the symbols alongside the explanation. A diagram shows the relationship; the assumptions tell you when it applies.
- STEP 1
Read the starting situation
A rectangular plan for a neighborhood festival measures 3 units across and 11 units high. Identify what each number measures before changing a control; the worked example refers to these starting values.
- STEP 2
Follow the mathematical change
Trace the boundary without jumping across the interior. Pause at a corner and identify which lengths have already been counted. Pause on an intermediate frame and compare the picture with the live readouts.
- STEP 3
Explain and test the relationship
The full boundary is 28 length units, while the area is 33 square units. These quantities answer different questions. Change one input, predict its effect, and test whether the same relationship still works.
Your turn to explain
Make a prediction. Test your reasoning.
Festival lanterns: use the original situation. A rectangular plan for a neighborhood festival measures 3 units across and 11 units high. Increase the width by one unit while keeping the height fixed. How much does the perimeter increase?
Use the values specified in the question. Reset restores the initial values for this investigation.
Compare your explanation
It increases by 2 units because both horizontal sides grow by one. The new perimeter is 30.
Work through a full lesson
Connect the animation to a worked example and practice questions.