CodalSearch this book — or all of Codal…⌘K
nydus/The Canterbury Puzzles, and Other Curious ProblemsPublic

Henry Ernest Dudeney collects a wide variety of original mathematical and mental puzzles into this volume. The book features an introductory essay on the nature of puzzles and provides solutions for all problems at the end.

Page 264 of 307
Table of Contents

84 .— The Japanese Ladies and the Carpet.

A geometric puzzle diagram featuring a square with a triangle and internal line segments connecting its vertices and sides.

It will be seen that I have here given the reverse method first: to cut the three small squares into six pieces to form a large square. In the case of our puzzle we can proceed as follows:—

Make LM equal to half the diagonal ON. Draw the line NM and drop from L a perpendicular on NM. Then LP will be the side of all the three squares of combined area equal to the large square QNLO. The reader can now cut out without difficulty the six pieces, as shown in the numbered square on the last page.

264