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?
The side of the new square is half the distance of the diagonal of the 8" square.
ReplyDeleteSo, if this is the 8" square:
O-----O
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|
|
O-----O
Move one of the coins to the center of the square:
O-----O
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|..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.
Nice illustrations, Mr Don! I was struggling with how I was going to describe this answer, but you did it perfectly.
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