Problem 229 - Root of the problem

It was dusk by the time the Pines & Swines seed and feed company showed up at Chip Awhey Spruce's tree farm, and Spruce was fit to be tied. Not only was the delivery truck late, the company had shorted his order of 20 trees by half.

"The Farmer's Almanac clearly states that if I want to grow a prize-winning pine, I've got to plant 5 rows of saplings, 4 in each row by the light of the first new moon. How am I supposed to do that with 10 trees?" Spruce asked. Can you point him in the right direction?

Solution to August's problem, 228:

Some of you thought we forgot to give you the volume of each spit and gave up. Others correctly worked out the solution to the following point:

Newton's third law illustrates the conservation of momentum:

Here are the results

The winner is... Fun problem 227:
Power meeting July, 1999:
Total entries: 81
Number correct: 33 (40.7%)
Winner: David E. Hanson, Savanna, Ill.
David's prize: Maple V software

Maple V is an interactive computator that provides a mathematical environment for manipulating symbolic algebraic expressions, arbitrary-precision numerics, graphics, and programming. Its library features over 2,700 functions used in many scientific and engineering applications. The software is available for Windows 98, 95, Windows NT, Windows 3.11, Macintosh, Power Macintosh, plus UNIX and Linux

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Fun with Fundamentals: Problem 228