Play & Learn Which box has greater area?

Material required
* An empty cigarette packet
* A pair of scissors
* Dry pea seeds

Method
* Flatten the outer shell of the cigarette packet and cut three strips, each 1 cm in width (Fig. 1)
* The strips will look like rectangular boxes (Fig. 2)
* One strip can be creased to make a rectangular box (fig. 3)
* You can flatten it into a hexagonal box (Fig. 4) or rolled into a circular hoop between two fingers (Fig. 5)

How to use
* Fill each of the rectangular, hexagonal and circular boxes with a layer of dry pea seeds.
* Count the number of peas present in each box.
* The number of peas will indicate the area of the box.
* Since all the strips are similar in size, they have the same perimeter, but the area occupied is different in each box. Which has the largest area?
* You will find the circular box enclosing the maximum area.

—MG