You are given that and .
Can you find without solving for and explicitly?
This one is easy and is solvable using high school math.
Previous iteration: #722793 (answer given in #723168).
(illustration of Apollonian gasket related to the previous problem)
The area of the outer big square is .
The area of the inner small square is (from Pythagoras on the triangles).
To calculate the inner square area, you take the outer square area, and subtract the area of the triangles:
reply
I love how the same algebraic solutions can have a very interesting geometric interpretation. Math is so beautiful
reply
Yea, that is pretty cool!
reply
58
reply
Do I get a B+? Haha
reply
I see some explicit and calculation. A few sats for the pen and paper efforts~~
reply
reply
I started making a multi-part multi-day puzzle to solve Fermat's last theorem for , but couldn't decide on how to properly divide it into meaningful parts as separate daily puzzles. That's why I ended up settling on this easy quick one for now, but hope to get back to Fermat in the coming days if I can find a way to approach things pedagogically.
reply
reply
Also, thank you for posting the link to the previous puzzle. I haven't been able to keep up but I want to go back and do some of the prior ones.
reply
No problem :)
reply