Inspiring and Creative Resources & Tutorials for Science-Curious People
Four equal sides, four right angles—most people call it a square. No idea why I keep picturing a party hat.
By the way, can you figure out the angle α of this shape?
Let’s consider R – r = 1. The formula for the angle θ in radians is:
Thus, the angle α is approximately 48.4 degrees.
One of the most peculiar numeral words in English, zenzizenzizenzic (/’zɛnziːzɛnziːzɛnzik/), denotes the square of the square of a number’s square. It appeared only once in English, in Robert Recorde’s The Whetstone of Wit (1557). The term derives from the obsolete zenzic, meaning the square of a number. Zenzic was borrowed from German, where mathematicians of the 14th and 15th centuries adopted it from the medieval Italian censo, itself a descendant of Latin census. Italian algebraists used censo to translate the Arabic māl (literally “possessions” or “property”), the standard term for a squared number. This association arose because early mathematicians, including the Arabs, conceptualized squared numbers as representing areas, particularly land—hence, property.
Notably, zenzizenzizenzic is the only English word with six Zs.
If you had to choose the shortest path from point A to point B, crossing the four squares with sides of 1 unit, which path would you take: the red one or the green one?
Despite the green path appearing visually longer, it is actually the same length as the red path. Here’s the explanation: Three diagonal green lines connect points A and B. Applying the Pythagorean theorem, each line measures √[(4/3)2 + 12] = 5/3 units (see picture below). Remarkably, when multiplied by 3, they match the precise length of the red path, 5 units.
Captivate your audience with visual puzzles! Syndicated by @Knightfeatures, perfect for publishers seeking engaging content. Read more: https://knightfeatures.com/news-main/2017/1/5/gianni-sarcone
A math-magic article I wrote for the German magazine Zeit Wissen: with the 13 triangular and square pieces (fig. 1) it is possible to form two large squares shown in fig. 2. Though the second large square has an extra piece the dimensions of the squares seem to be the same! Can you explain why this is possible?
This puzzle is available as greeting cards from my online store.
3,139,971,973,786,634,711,391,448,651,577,269,485,891,759,419,122,938,744,591,877,656,925,789,747,974,914,319,422,889,611,373,939,731 produces reversible primes in each row, column and diagonal when distributed in a 10×10 square.
Diagram by HT Jens Kruse Andersen.
If you place squares on the sides of any parallelogram, their centers will always form a square.
Any two polygons with equal area can be dissected into a finite number of pieces to form each other. One of the most interesting dissection or geometric equidecomposition puzzles is that discovered by Harry Lindgren in 1951 (see Fig. 2 further below). As you know, in this kind of puzzles, the geometric invariant is the area, since when a polygon is cut and its pieces are distributed differently, the overall area doesn’t change.
Lindgren was the first to discover how to cut a dodecagon into a minimal number of pieces that could pave a square, when rearranged differently. His solution is very elegant, he first built a regular Euclidean pavement by cutting a dodecagon as shown in fig. 1.a, then arranging the four pieces symmetrically on the plane (fig 1.b). The tessellation achieved with these pieces corresponds, by superposition, to a regular paving of squares. The example in fig. 2 shows how the puzzle appears once finished.
