DanceMentor
Administrator
This one definitely requires a little knowledge about triangles. Do you remember the name of the theorem we must use to solve it?
Simple geometry puzzle involving triangles
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Good old Pythagoras!
But there is a shortcut here that meant I could solve this in 5 seconds with no pencil...which I guess the caption is expecting us to use?
But there is a shortcut here that meant I could solve this in 5 seconds with no pencil...which I guess the caption is expecting us to use?
There are only handful of special right triangles where all sides have integer lengths. The most famous of these is the 3:4:5 triangle.
Drop an altitude line through the shape to split it into rectangle & triangle, and we see the telltale 4 and 5. Boom, the last side must be 3, so x = 8.
Drop an altitude line through the shape to split it into rectangle & triangle, and we see the telltale 4 and 5. Boom, the last side must be 3, so x = 8.
ProgressNotPerfection
Forum Master
“What is x?”
That’s an easy one! X is the 24th letter of the English alphabet.
That’s an easy one! X is the 24th letter of the English alphabet.
Why no pen or paper? Is the author trying to assert some sort of mental math superiority complex, or is that now considered cheating? I notice it doesn't say "no AI / ChatGPT / Google".
And yes, I got the answer, and yes with pen and paper, because I did math problems with pen(cil) and paper for almost 20 years (kingergarden through masters degree) and I'm not going to sit here and feel like I don't deserve full credit.
And yes, I got the answer, and yes with pen and paper, because I did math problems with pen(cil) and paper for almost 20 years (kingergarden through masters degree) and I'm not going to sit here and feel like I don't deserve full credit.
You get full credit. Fiesta used a shortcut probably few people know about a specific triangle.
Dude I'm a math genius, one of the "few". I did all the aforementioned shortcuts too. With pen and paper.
They might be. Posturing and braggadocio are a common enough human activity.
There is a kinder interpretation, though. The caption could be attempting to give us a hint that there is a shortcut or insight that makes the problem simpler than it looks. So it's not saying if you can't do this in your head, you're a loser; it's saying, despite how it looks, there is a simple way to solve this.
Now, I'm not claiming definitively that this is what the writer intended. Knowing people, and knowing the internet, odds are that the posturing interpretation is more likely. But I find it keeps my blood pressure lower if I aggressively assign one-off strangers the best motivations for what they write, so that's how I'm going to read it in my head.
Full credit in my book! And honestly, the only reason I did it without is that it didn't matter if I was wrong. I learned the hard way a long time ago that, even for something as ""easy"" as this, working the problem on paper is an absolutely critical error-avoidance mechanism. My mistake rate in simple mental arithmetic is *hilariously* high!