Originally posted by spacemonkey:
I saw this on another forum, and no one could answer.



I know that it is either a optical illusion, or it is some mathematical answer that i don't understand. I have a couple ideas, but i want to see what you all think




Both triangles are half of 13x5 or 32.5 square units.

Ok, in the first image, red is 12 square units. (It is 8x3, but cut in half diagonally)

In the second image, red is also 12 square units.

The non-triangle pieces we agree are also the same size in both and occupy individually 7 or 8 square units in each image.

The dark green triangle piece occupies 5 square units in both
examples.

So in the first example.

Red = 12 units
Light Green = 8 units
Dark Green = 5 units
Orange = 7 units

Total space apparently occupied is 32 units, it doesn't quite match the 32.5 units we predicted.

Let's look at the second one.

Same space Red = 12 , Lt Green = 8, Dark Green = 5, Orange = 7 and now white = 1. Total units is 33 again, not exactly what we predicted.

Is it a rounding issue?

TB

"Seems like our society is more interested in turning each successive generation into cookie-cutter wankers than anything else." -- Jato 8/24/2004