Hello guzzlers.
I’ve not set you a dissection puzzle before – that’s the name for puzzles about reassembling shapes – so here’s one to cut your teeth on.
A carpenter needs a square piece of wood measuring 30 inches by 30 inches. Unfortunately the only suitable piece in his workshop is a rectangle 25 inches by 36 inches.
How does he saw the wood into two pieces, such that the two pieces can be glued together to make the square he wants?
I’ll be back at 5pm GMT with the solution. Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS! Instead please discuss power tools and other dissection puzzles.
UPDATE: Solution now up here.
I set a puzzle here every two weeks on a Monday. If you want me to send you an email each time I post a new one, send me your email.
I’m always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me. Thanks to Martin Usher for today’s.
My most recent book is Can You Solve My Problems, A Casebook of Ingenious, Perplexing and Totally Satisfying Puzzles. My children’s book Football School: Where Football Explains The World, co-written with Ben Lyttleton, was recently shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award 2017.
