Graphic design
Saving paper
Every year over 170,000 square kilometers of trees are cut down (over 8 times the size of Massatchusetts!). As the rate at which trees are being planted does not match the rate of their logging, forest areas are lost every year. In the last 50 years we have lost about a fifth of the world's forests. Around a quarter of the trees logged go to the paper industry. Therefore, one way to reduce the rate at which trees are cut down is to reduce the consumption of paper. You can calculate how many square kilometers of trees would be saved if, for example, world paper consumption were reduced by 25%.
One way to save paper is to reduce the size of margins in books, a method that has been used in the past: during World War II, Britain issued special regulations concerning margins, which publishers had to follow to save paper.
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A publisher published a series of novels designed according to the following format:
The publisher wants to produce a new, enviroment-friendly edition of the series, in which the design will be changed so that the amount of paper needed to print each book is reduced by 20%. You have been hired as a mathematical consultant for the redesign of the books. There are various ways to change the design. For example:
Retaining the size of the page and changing the size of the margins and text area:
There are various ways to do this:
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Changing the size of each margin by a certain amount (for exmaple, increasing all the margins by 0.5 cm)
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Changing the margins so that the 2:3 ratio between the left/right and top/bottom margins is preserved:
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Changing the size of the text area so that its shape (ratio of height to width) is preserved:
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Making margins equal on all sides:
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One can also think of possibilities for redesign that
retain the size of the text area and change the size of the page and the margins; again, there are various ways to do this.
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Analyse different possibilities for redesign
Choose several ways for redesigning the book. Describe your methods precisely.
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Construct a mathematical description of your methods and use this description for a redesign plan that saves 20% of the paper.
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Show a figure of each plan you create (you can use the Page Design tool to do it).
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