Wednesday, June 20, 2012

How can this be?

 Take a look at these triangles. They are made from the same shapes but the bottom one is missing a section. How can this be? What are some possible explanations you can come up with?
 


















Maybe this animation will help:






2 comments:

  1. OK, so my first thought is that this is voodoo magic. I think I am gonna stick with that answer.

    I love how your blog really seems to push for higher level thinking. I was always the type of student who just wanted math concepts laid out so I could memorize them and be done with it. Questions like this really get you to think about the processes behind math.

    They also make my brain explode a little bit.

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  2. I tried to count the squares and I noticed that the first triangle has 13 squares on the bottom, and then the second triangle needs the blank square to make 13 squares. Then I noticed the height of the blue triangle is two squares and the red triangle is 3 squares, so made that made up for it somehow or something. I tried to watch the animation but my computer must be missing something to be able to see it.

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