Argh! My brain is going to explode!
A coworker of mine sent me this thing today. (Shows how busy with work we all are these days..) I've been staring at it on and off and I can't figure it out. Can somebody just tell me what this means?
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Brain food
Posted by glitch at 4:57 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
the angle of the slope of the triangle is different in the second one - different by exactly the amount needed to make it one square less.
Both forms cover the same amount of space on the grid, just in a different configuration. But it looks like it's the same angle and same size triangle (which it isn't) which is what makes it so trippy :)
I'm going to ask my brother to explain this better.
I don't have time to work it out to my own satisfaction right now, but it will probably help to realize that the two component triangles are not similar (in the precise geometric sense) -- the larger has short sides 3 and 8, the smaller, 2 and 5. This means that neither of the two overall figures is actually a proper triangle.
Further: if you lean back from the drawing, let your eyes go out of focus a bit, and look right at the point on each one where one triangle meets the other, you can just barely see that the top one is kinda dented there and the bottom one is kinda bulgy. And that, I am almost certain, is the crux of the puzzle.
It would be more obvious if one redrew the diagram with really thin lines.
But of course!:)
It all makes sense now....
Post a Comment