Re: Paper puzzle

On 28/04/2025 08:55, David Entwistle wrote:

Here's an easy puzzle, if you have all the facts to hand.
 If you cut two A4 sheets of paper along the diagonal, you can arrange the
four triangular pieces into a square, with the pieces touching, but not
overlapping and the diagonals forming the outer edge of the square. There
will be a small uncovered area in the centre of this arrangement.
 What proportion of the area of the larger square does the central
uncovered square area form?

I handed this to ChatGPT, and it came up with the right numerical (and so approximate) answer straight away, but I had to ask it to generalise before it uncovered the exact result.
--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
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