1. What are the standard widths for a room door? Look around your home and in school.
2. Are the doors in your school suitable for people in wheelchairs?
- 1. What are the standard widths for a room door? Look around your home and in school.
- 2. Are the doors in your school suitable for people in wheelchairs?
Step-by-step solution
Idea: This is a measuring task. Measure the clear opening of a door (from the inside of one side of the frame to the other, with the door open) and compare it with the width a wheelchair needs, about 90 cm.
1. What are the standard widths for a room door? Look around your home and in school.
- Measure a few doors with a measuring tape, across the open doorway. Typical results in Indian homes and schools are:
- Bedroom and other room doors: about 75 to 90 cm (2½ to 3 ft). Bathroom doors: narrower, about 60 to 75 cm (2 to 2½ ft). Main entrance doors: about 90 to 105 cm (3 to 3½ ft).½ mark
- Classroom doors in schools are usually wider, about 90 to 120 cm (3 to 4 ft), and are often double doors, because many people pass through at once.½ mark
2. Are the doors in your school suitable for people in wheelchairs?
- A wheelchair is about 60 to 75 cm wide, and the user’s hands need room on the wheels. Accessibility guidelines ask for a clear opening of at least about 90 cm (3 ft).½ mark
- Also check: no step at the doorway (or a ramp beside it), a handle at about 85 cm to 1 m above the floor, and a flat space of about 1.5 m in front of the door so the chair can turn.½ mark
- Model conclusion: classroom doors of 1 m or more pass the test; a toilet door of 70 cm with a step at the entrance does not, and should be widened and given a ramp.
Check: Compare with the plan of Reiaan’s room: the room door is 3.5 ft wide (wide enough for a wheelchair) and the bathroom door is 2.5 ft (narrower than a typical room door, and too narrow for a wheelchair).
Answer to write in the exam
1.
Room door ≈ 75 to 90 cm (2½ to 3 ft)
Bathroom door ≈ 60 to 75 cm (2 to 2½ ft)
Main door ≈ 90 to 105 cm; classroom door ≈ 90 to 120 cm (3 to 4 ft)
2.
Needed: clear opening ≥ 90 cm (3 ft), no step (or a ramp), handle within reach.
Doors of 1 m or more with no step: suitable.
∴ Narrow doors (e.g. a 70 cm toilet door) or doors with a step are not suitable; they need widening or a ramp.
Common mistakes that cost marks
- Measuring the outside of the door frame instead of the clear opening. The wheelchair passes through the opening, which is a few centimetres narrower.
- Checking only the width. A doorway with a step is still unusable for a wheelchair, however wide it is.
- Mixing units: writing 90 ft for 90 cm. Keep one unit, or convert with 1 ft ≈ 30.5 cm.
How this can come in the exam
On a plan with scale 1 unit = 1 ft, four doors are given by their two ends. Which one is wide enough for a wheelchair that needs at least 3 ft?
- (0, 2) and (0, 4.5)
- (5, 0) and (8.5, 0)
- (3, 10) and (5.5, 10)
- (12, 1) and (12, 3)
Show answer
(B) (5, 0) and (8.5, 0)
Widths: 2.5 ft, 3.5 ft, 2.5 ft and 2 ft. Only 3.5 ft is at least 3 ft.
A school checks its doors for wheelchair users. The guideline is a clear opening of at least 0.9 m with no step. The measurements are: library door 0.75 m, staff room door 0.9 m, classroom door 1.2 m, and toilet door 0.7 m with a 15 cm step.
(i) Which doors meet the width guideline? (ii) Why does the toilet door fail even after it is widened to 0.9 m? (iii) The library door is to be widened by 20%. Will it then meet the guideline? (iv) By how many centimetres must the toilet door be widened?
Show answer
(i) Staff room (0.9 m) and classroom (1.2 m) (1 mark). (ii) It still has a 15 cm step, so a ramp is needed as well (1 mark). (iii) 0.75 × 1.2 = 0.9 m, so yes, exactly (1 mark). (iv) 0.9 − 0.7 = 0.2 m = 20 cm (1 mark).Try one yourself
On a plan (1 unit = 1 ft), a bedroom door runs from (2, 0) to (4.75, 0) and a bathroom door from (0, 3) to (0, 5.25). Find both widths. Could a wheelchair that needs 3 ft pass through either?
Show answer
Bedroom door 4.75 − 2 = 2.75 ft; bathroom door 5.25 − 3 = 2.25 ft. Neither is 3 ft, so neither suits the wheelchair.
More questions like this
- So far, we have only considered points on the two coordinate axes. What can you say about the coordinates of points that are not on either axes?
- Copy the figure and mark S and Q in your diagram. Mark any point P in Quadrant I and any point R in Quadrant III, and write down their coordinates.
- 1. What is the x-coordinate of a point on the y-axis?
2. Is there a similar generalisation for a point on the x-axis?
3. Does point Q (y, x) ever coincide with point P (x, y)? Justify your answer.
4. If x ≠ y, then (x, y) ≠ (y, x); and (x, y) = (y, x) if and only if x = y. Is this claim true? - Place Reiaan’s rectangular study table with three of its feet at the points (8, 9), (11, 9) and (11, 7).
- If the bathroom door has a hinge at B1 and opens into the bedroom, will it hit the wardrobe? Are there any changes you would suggest if the door is made wider?