Bruce wrote:
 
>Tony Furnivall wrote:
>>How long must
>>the rope be in order that the goat can eat exactly half the surface
>>area of the [circular] field?
 
>If the radius of the field is r, isn't this just r/sqr(2)?
 
Yes, sort of. If the perfect goat can't chew through the perfect rope, as was
suggested earlier, then the "perfectly" correct answer for the length of the
perfect tether, r, would be
 
     r = R/sqr(2) - width of goat's dentition
                - distance of muzzle anchor to the side of the goat's teeth
 
where R  = the radius of the perfect field and the perfect tether was
anchored to one side of a perfect muzzle fastened around the perfect goat's
perfect mouth rather than his neck (perfect or not). The information about
the perfect fence is perfectly irrelevant.
 
Wirt Atmar