Puzzle illusion: Missing Square by readjusting the pieces…

I stumbled on this blog post today, looking at the picture, it was amazing to me and tried sometime to understand the puzzle. I finally hit the wikipedia, and found this post [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_square_puzzle ] with some more description in it.

 (image from wikipedia: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Missing_square_puzzle.svg/300px-Missing_square_puzzle.svg.png)

…. so Area of the overal diagram remains the same, area of those moved pieces remain the same, and still interesting to see how another square gets left out overall.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Math. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Puzzle illusion: Missing Square by readjusting the pieces…”

  1. Vookadampudu Says:
    February 28, 2008 10:53 am at 10:53 am | Reply

    Sorry for this out of context question, but can you help me with any update on Udbhava.com, it is down for quite some time and am missing it.

  2. ramsblog Says:
    February 28, 2008 5:15 pm at 5:15 pm | Reply

    @Vookadampudu,
    I am sorry, I do not know anything about the Udbhava.com status. I only shared about the site on my blog, since I liked the kannada material they had provided. :)

  3. this_is_solution Says:
    March 12, 2009 1:03 pm at 1:03 pm | Reply

    Look at the area of the right polygons. The space changes, but the area stays the same. it’s 3*5=15 and (2*8)-1=15. add it to the triangles (3*8)/2=12. (2*5)/2=5. 12+5+15=32. yet look at area of both triangles.
    a)(15*5)/2=32.5
    b)((15*2)/2)-1=31.5
    average them out, and you get 32.
    The triangles can change shape, but the right polygons will stay the same.
    /l
    / l
    / l
    / l
    / l
    /_____l
    /lYAY__l
    / l l l copy&paste
    / l FOH l if you
    / l__l l like
    / l l puxxlez!!!!
    / PUXXLEZ!! l
    /______l_____l

  4. this_is_solution Says:
    March 12, 2009 1:05 pm at 1:05 pm | Reply

    Look at the area of the right polygons. The space changes, but the area stays the same. it’s 3*5=15 and (2*8)-1=15. add it to the triangles (3*8)/2=12. (2*5)/2=5. 12+5+15=32. yet look at area of both triangles.
    a)(15*5)/2=32.5
    b)((15*2)/2)-1=31.5
    average them out, and you get 32.
    The triangles can change shape, but the right polygons will stay the same.
    ,,,,,,,,,,,,/l
    ,,,,,,,,,,,/,l
    ,,,,,,,,,,/ ,l
    ,,,,,,,,,/ ,,l
    ,,,,,,,,/ ,,,l
    ,,,,,,,/_____l
    ,,,,,,/lYAY__l
    ,,,,,/ l ,l,,l ,,,,,,,,,copy&paste
    ,,,,/ ,lFOH ,l ,,,,,,,,,if you
    ,,,/ ,,l__l ,l ,,,,,,,,,,like
    ,,/ ,,,l ,,,,l ,,,,,,,,,puxxlez!!!!
    ,/ PUXXLEZ!! l
    /______l_____l

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