The empty lot below is lined with wooden stakes forming a grid of squares. Your job is to stretch ropes between the stakes so that a four-person family that is planning to build a house here can have four identically shaped rooms.
You must complete this puzzle using the entire lot and five ropes or less. A rope that traverses multiple stakes in a straight line counts as one rope if you draw it with a single stroke.
UK Version
This empty plot is lined with wooden stakes that form a grid of squares. Your job is to stretch some ropes between the stakes so that a four-person family planning to build a house here can have four identically-shaped rooms, using up the whole plot of land.
For a straight line across multiple stakes, be sure to use only one rope. You need to complete this puzzle using five ropes or fewer.
The lot is shaped like a square with two corners cut off. Keep this in mind as you think about what shapes you can make four versions of.
UK Version
The plot is shaped like a square with two of its corners cut off. Keep this in mind and think about what kind of shapes you can make four of.
US Version
Four rooms in the same shape will solve this puzzle. However, they don't all have to be the same size!
Did you perhaps make four trapezoids and wonder why you failed? Remember, to truly be considered the same shape, the proportions of all the rooms need to be equivalent.
UK Version
You need four rooms of the same shape to solve this puzzle. They don't all have to be the same size, however!
Did you perhaps make four trapeziums and wonder why you failed? Remember, to truly be considered the same shape, all the rooms need to be to scale.
US Version
The solution involves two large rooms of the same size and two small rooms of the same size. They're all equal shapes in terms of proportions.
UK Version
The solution involves two large rooms of the same size and two small rooms of the same size. The large rooms are perfectly proportional to the small ones.
US Version
Can you picture what a diamond gemstone looks like from the side after it's been cut? The four rooms are all that same shape.
If that's still confusing, count two stakes left from the top-right corner and stretch a rope two stakes down from there. Then count two stakes down from the top-right corner, and stretch a rope two stakes left from there. See the shape you made? That's it!
UK Version
Picture a cut diamond, the type that you'd put in a ring, viewed from the side. The four rooms rooms are all that shape.
If that's still confusing, count two stakes left from the top-right corner and stretch a rope two stakes down from the top-right corner and stretch a rope two stakes left from there. See the shape you made? That's it!
Solution
Incorrect
Too bad!
US Version
The rooms need to be the same shape.
UK Version
Even if the shapes were similar, maybe their angles were different, or maybe they were not in proportion?
Correct
Nice job!
US Version
Yep, they're all the same shape. Did it take you long to realize that the rooms didn't need to be all the same size?
UK Version
There they are, all the same shape. Did it take you long to realise that the rooms didn't need to all be the same size?