Diagonal or offset container
spacing is frequently used in nurseries to get more containers into a given space. The procedure
for calculating the Interception Efficiency is basically the same. The rectangle
is now a parallelogram - a four-sided figure composed of straight lines, and
having its opposite sides parallel and equal.
To
better visualize this, draw a parallelogram on paper. Make two horizontal parallel
lines and cross these with two diagonal parallel lines.
At each of the four
intersection points, draw a small circle using each intersection point as the
center of a circle. Darken the bottom horizontal line connecting the two circles.
Draw a perpendicular line from this darken line to the center of the circle
above this line.
By extending the darkened line on the bottom to the right,
a perpendicular line can be drawn to the remaining circle above it. Note that
a rectangle has been formed by the addition of the two perpendicular lines and
the triangles that were formed represent an area that can be moved to convert
the parallelogram area into a rectangle.
The Diagonal
Container Spacing diagram illustrates the areas and the shape conversion to a square
or rectangle. Note that the width dimension is the perpendicular measurement
between the two sides.
Measure the horizontal line
(length) and the perpendicular line (width) to get the container spacing dimensions.
For a field situation, measure the "width" from the center of a container to
the imaginary line running center to center of containers on the "length". Continue
as described in the previous section.