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        riddles >> hard >> CrazySquare
        
(Message started by: Magneeto on Jul 26^th, 2002, 12:57am)

Title: CrazySquare
Post by Magneeto on Jul 26^th, 2002, 12:57am

Yes, It can be done.
Answer:
First I am going to define the pieces.
The square, the large triangle, the small triangle, the male , and the female.
Place the square into the female and put it in the lower left corner so that the square becomes the lower left corner. Next, place the male in the upper right corner so that the pointy part becomes the upper right corner, and the male and female are back to back. It then becomes clear that the small triangle (point down) fits in the top and becomes half of the corner in the upper left corner. Finally the large triangle becomes the lower right corner (point out).
Recap: parts going clockwise from the upper right corner are :
male, big triangle, square, female , and the little triangle. :D

Title: Re: CrazySquare
Post by pa0pa0 on Jul 29^th, 2002, 4:51am

That hint "print out the image. Then cut out the pieces and play with them on your desk" is not only wicked (waste of paper) but is downright misleading, since the first thing anyone is going to do with the pieces is rotate them a bit, and once they've done that their chances of getting anything to fit become a good approximation to zero.

If one is arithmetically inclined, one could observe that (if the side of the smallest square, the "fifth piece", is 1) the diagonal if the existing square is 4, so its area is 8; so the area of the new square will be 9, and its side will be 3.

But there's really no need to go to all that trouble, since remembering that it's better not to rotate anything (except of course the fifth piece), the sensible thing to do is to move the funny-shaped (non-convex) piece bodily just to the right of the existing square (more or less where the fifth piece is now) and everything falls into place.

However, the initial puzzle layout is actually quite sneaky - the extra fifth piece, being where it is now, makes it harder to see where the new square would most naturally grow.

Title: Re: CrazySquare
Post by JT Vaughan on Jul 30^th, 2002, 10:39pm

It also is solvable if you fold the large triangle in half.

They never said you couldn't do that!

Title: Re: CrazySquare
Post by NeedQTIP2StabBrain on Nov 5^th, 2002, 12:36am

http://members.aol.com/likes2liquor/square.jpg

This is a very simple puzzle. My father made one for me out of plexiglass. It only took me 2 minutes to solve. Ofcourse, I was 10 at the time.

Nick