[geeks] lawn mowing efficiency

[Eric Dittman]

> As I sit here, covered in sweat from just finishing mowing the lawn,
> I had some thoughts while mowing said lawn.
> 
> I do it with a normal cheapie $150 push mower from Wal-Mart.  The way
> I was "taught" to mow lawns, with a eject-on-the-right-side mower, was
> to do it in a spiral, or squared-spiral, counterclockwise so that you
> never had to go over the grass you'd just mowed and ejected on the right-
> hand side.  Like this (monospaced fonts ahead!)
> ...
> Till you end up in the middle (or darn near close to it) of a freshly mowed
> lawn.  

This is how I mow 2/3 of the time.  1/3 of the time I go
clockwise and the other time I go counterclockwise.

> I was wondering.. this is probably a math problem.. is there a more efficient
> way (less walking distance) to mow the same area?  Which is longer, the "spiral"
> way or the "rows way (see below)?

And I mow this way the other 1/3 of the time.

> Thoughts?  I do a lot of zen-like thinking wihle mowing the
> lawn... 8-)

I change things around for a couple of reasons.  The most
important is it reduces the boredom (but only by a bit).
The other is the grass seems to look better.
-- 
Eric Dittman
dittman at dittman.net
Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/