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Submitted by plusadmin on 1 June, 2008
June 2008

Tiling troubles

Woman in bath

Perpendicula, the magnificent princess of the rectangle, is admiring her magnificent new bathroom. It's rectangular of course; 10m wide and 20m long. It still needs tiling, though, and Perpendicula has ordered tiles of pure gold to mirror the dimensions of the bathroom: they are 1m wide and 2m long.

There is a problem though: water, milk and honey pipes need to be fitted in two diagonally opposed corners of the bathroom. This means that in each of these two corners a square area of 1m×1m has to remain untiled. Can the rest of the floor area be tiled without cutting any of the 2m×1m tiles?

Here is a hint

If you are stumped by last issue's puzzle, here is the solution.

For some challenging mathematical puzzles, see the NRICH puzzles from this month or last month.

Solution link
Tiling troubles solution
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