World's hardest, easy geometry problem.

[Robatoy]

Some of you have, no doubt, seen this little nugget. (NO cheating with AutoCAD, or Google.)

[nailshooter41]

Especially at my house!

Robert

[Robatoy]

LOL.... the silence was deafening....

[Han]

Robatoy wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I sent the link to my granddaughter, who is in 6th grade. And to her parents, high school teachers in math and in physics.

Waiting ...

[Puckdropper]

Robatoy wrote in news: [e-mail]:

For the record, I did actually work on it for a while. I usually ignore these puzzle type things, but this one did catch my attention.

I got everything worked out except for the angles closest to x. It seems to me that they should be solved via simultaneous (sp?) equations, but I was unable to figure out what the equations should be. That's not exactly elementary geometry, though, is it?

Puckdropper

[DonkeyHody]

I never was a whiz at math, but I did manage to struggle through 4 semesters of calculus and differential equations on the way to an engineering degree. I spent several hours poring over this puzzle and even drew it to scale on CAD. It was easy enough to measure the angle by CAD and it turned out to be just what I had guessed it should be. But the best I could do by following the rules was to reduce it to 3 equations with 3 unknowns. But I suspect my 3 equations are inbred because I wasn't able to solve them. I don't believe it can be solved by simple geometry alone.

DonkeyHody "There's a difference between doing things right and doing the right things."

[Robatoy]

[e-mail]:

I drew a few contruction(deduction?) lines as per instructions (fused into my memory) of the best math teacher ever (high school, The Netherlands), he taught to be intuitive. I did solve it with geometry, but in a long roundabout way. After I solved it, the obvious slapped me in the face. I saw 'it'. I did end up feeling pretty proud of myself, but admittedly after waaaaaay longer than I had first thought. WAAAAY longer. I should have seen 'it' immediately. I didn't. Must be old age. That math teacher loved his job and subjects. I had a salty dog, ex sailor, as a geography teacher in the same school. When he talked about foreign lands, he had us all in the palm of his hand. We could smell the products from far away places as he described them. Annnnd, (stupid us, we didn't know ) he was teaching all the while. To this day I enjoy learning new stuff about foreign lands. OTOH, my biology teacher sucked canal water.

r

[Swingman]

"Robatoy" wrote

Ahh yes! Miss Anthony, 8th grade English, the impression she made on the minds of us young lads, and the countless trips we made to worship her at her desk ... and to peek down the front of her blouse.

The mammaries linger to this day!

[jbd in Denver]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news:fc07118e- [e-mail]:

Where is "CW?"

This is his type of thing...

[Han]

Robatoy wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I have not yet tried to solve it/them. No courage anymore. My mathteacher was an elderly lady nicknamed koptelefoon, because of her wound-up braids. Geography teachers were just weird. Biology teacher was the greatest. I agree, slootwater can be really bad, but I did swim in both the Rhine and Friesian canals. I also did other things, but fishing was not my forte. Met my wife in '62 summercamp aboard this boat:

[Han]

"Swingman" wrote in news:scudnWvgH5Q8pW_anZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Hence "Swingman"?

[Dave in Houston]

She'd be a registered sex offender today.

Dave in Houston

[Lew Hodgett]

My highschool math teacher was less than 5 ft tall and past 70 when she tried to teach me.

Had a 48-49 Packard that when she drove, could barely see over the steering wheel to drive.

Never did check to see if she ahd blockes attached to the pedeals so she could reach them.

Great teacher.

Had one who decided to check out one of her male students.

Suddenly, one day she was gone at noon.

Never really got the straight story, but then again, a small town in the MidWest in the early 50s.

Pretty racey stuff for the period.

Lew

[Robatoy]

On Apr 1, 8:38=A0pm, Han wrote: =2E

That's funny. We had a physic teacher we call 'drollevanger' (turdcatcher) because he wore those pants that puff up at mid-calf height.

I went to sail camp the way kids go to regular camp every summer. Indeed, the Friesian lakes, and the water was clear in the early

1960's. The Rhine, however, which ran through my home town Alphen aan den Riin, was basically an open sewer. Much better now, but I knew enough back then not to swim in there. The diverted Rhine, which now flows through Rotterdam is down-stream from a lot of German industry...not so sure I'd swim in it either.

did. We sailed Rainbows:

looking for a picture of a regenboog, I saw what people are paying for those these days...holy cow...)

r

[Han]

Robatoy wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I grew up in Wageningen, and the Rijn wasn't too clean, but occasionally I'd swim there. Mostly if needed because the sailing boat didn't stay up. The Rijn at Wageningen wasn't too crowded with commercial traffic, but of course, we'd stay out of the way of the tankers.

was a kid, they were rare because of their cost. Mostly BM'ers, maybe Vrijheidjes (Freedom) and other even cheaper plywood boats. You know, the kind for which daysailer was an exhalted term. Of course, glass and plastic is the norm now. 30 years ago we got a present from people who were moving cross country, a Snark. It was fun on the Charles in Cambridge, MA.

[Andy Dingley]

[dpb]

Except there aren't enough similar triangles initially to provide the total answer... :)

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