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Monday, February 26, 2007

Four Corners

Place four coins at the four corners of a square. Each side of the square is 8 inches long, as measured from the center of the coins. Can you move two coins so that you have a new square so that each side of the square is slightly longer than 5 1/2 inches?
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2 comments:

  1. Mr. Don2/26/2007 10:40 AM

    The side of the new square is half the distance of the diagonal of the 8" square.

    So, if this is the 8" square:

    O-----O
    |
    |
    |
    O-----O

    Move one of the coins to the center of the square:

    O-----O
    |
    |..O
    |
    O

    Now move the bottom left coin to the other side of the new triange to form a square.

    .. O
    |
    O-----O
    |
    ...O

    Each side is 5.66" long.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown2/27/2007 8:57 AM

    Nice illustrations, Mr Don! I was struggling with how I was going to describe this answer, but you did it perfectly.

    ReplyDelete

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