536 Puzzles and Curious Problems

Triangle, Square, & Other Polygon Puzzles

ner indicated in the diagram. What

is the area of the path?

Dimensions for the garden are gen-

erally given that only admit of an

approximate answer, but I select fig-

ures that will give an answer that is

quite exact. The width of the path is

exaggerated in the diagram for the

sake of clearness.

262. THE GARDEN BED

85

Here is quite a simple little puzzle.

A man has a triangular lawn of the

proportions shown, and he wants to

make the largest possible rectangular

flower bed without enclosing the tree.

How is he to do it?

sible rectangular table top without in-

cluding a bad knot in the.wood.

This will serve to teach the uniniti-
ated a simple rule that may prove
useful on occasion. For example, it
would equally apply to the case of a
carpenter who had a triangular board
and wished to cut out the largest pos-

263. A PROBLEM FOR SURVEYORS

There are tricks in every trade, and the science of numbers contains an in-
finite number of them. In nearly every vocation of life there are little wrinkles
and short cuts that are most useful when known. For example, a man bought
a little field, and on page 86 is the scale map (one inch to the rod) that was
given to me. I asked my surveyor to tell me the area of the field, but he said