bandman

I was wondering if anyone has ever made a little wooden "math stumper" puzzle like the one I will describe. I made one many years ago and forgot where I got the plans or exactly how to make it. Simply put, we all know the sum of the parts in an object are equal no matter how we cut the object up. However, this little puzzle was cut so that when you put it together one way ( I believe there were 4 pieces) it would make a 9"x7" rectangle and when you arranged
them differently it would make an 8"x8" square. The interesting thing of course, is that the rectangle ends up having 63 square inches for its area and the square has 64 square inches defying the math laws. It is an easy puzzle to make, all the pieces were cut on angles or square cuts and only took a couple of minutes to cut out. I teach school and would enjoy giving it to our math teachers to stump their students and also get them thinking a little. If anyone has the plans for this I would appreciate your help.

Thank You,

Bandman

justin2009

Given a constant perimeter, a square will always have more area than a rectangle. The perimeter in this case is 32"

A: 8*8=64, P: 32"
9*7=63, P: 32"
10*6=60, P: 32"
11*5=55, P: 32"
12*4=48, P: 32"

And so on.

Not sure how to cut the wood to make the thing work, though.

LGC KX5 TC

this is the only thing i can think of

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bruce.v...d%20puzzle.pdf

This website has some pretty cool puzzle boxes and stuff, and the plans are all free!!!!

Here it is:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bruce.viney/index.html