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How Much Wire?

A farmer builds a barbed wire fence. He digs the holes and sets 10 posts in a straight line with 12-foot spaces between them. He then strings two lines of barbed wire between each of the posts, an upper wire and lower wire. Besides spanning the 12-foot gap between the posts each wire will also wrap around the 1-foot circumference of each post before continuing to the next (including the end posts). How many feet of wire will the farmer require?

Answer: 236 feet.

Explanation: There are 9 spaces (NOT 10) between the 10 posts, so to span the gaps will require 9 spaces x 12 feet x 2 rows = 216 feet of wire. Wrapping the posts will require an additional 1 ft. per wrap x 2 wraps per post x 10 posts = 20 feet. 216 + 20 = 236 feet.