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How is it possible? - Puzzle

PostPosted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:31 am
by rebbonk
Image

Re: How is it possible? - Puzzle

PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 7:59 am
by pollyanna
I gave up on this one - any ideas anyone :?:

Re: How is it possible? - Puzzle

PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 2:50 pm
by dutchman
Yes Polly, but I had to look it up:

Spoiler:
The bigger shape is not a true triangle. If you hold a straight edge against the sloping line you will see that the upper shape bulges very slightly while the lower shape is very slightly hollow. The tiny difference in total area is enough to account for the missing square. :geek:

Re: How is it possible? - Puzzle

PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 3:01 pm
by rebbonk
dutchman wrote:Yes Polly, but I had to look it up:

Spoiler:
The bigger shape is not a true triangle. If you hold a straight edge against the sloping line you will see that the upper shape bulges very slightly while the lower shape is very slightly hollow. The tiny difference in total area is enough to account for the missing square. :geek:


Quite right Dutchman. ;)

You'd be surprised how many engineers are caught out with that one.

Re: How is it possible? - Puzzle

PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 3:26 pm
by pollyanna
Cheater :evil:

Re: How is it possible? - Puzzle

PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 2:03 am
by dutchman
pollyanna wrote:Cheater :evil:
I only looked it up after I'd struggled with it for hours Polly. I already had a pretty good idea what the solution was before I looked it up and you'd be surprised how many totally incorrect solutions there are online! :)