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The reason that people sometimes find this puzzling is because they start off making an assumption. Often they don't even realise they have made this assumption. The assumption is that we are comparing two triangles, and that they each have the same area. Certainly a quick inspection - helped by the grid - is that the 'triangles' are 13 squares across, and five squares high, and they kind of look the same.
In fact the top triangle is not a triangle at all, it is a quadrilateral. If you look closely along the line of the hypotenuse (the diagonal), you will see that it is not quite straight, it is slightly concave. Why? Well, the dark green triangle is 5 squares across, and 2 squares high. The red triangle is 3 squares high, and should be 7.5 squares across for the hypotenuse to have the same angle to the horizontal. In fact the red triangle is 8 squares across, and the angle of the hypotenuse is slightly shallower that that of the green triangle. Which is why the hypotenuse is not a straight line, when you look closely.
The bottom 'triangle' is not a triangle either, it is also a quadrilateral, but now the hypotenuse is slightly convex, since the position of the red and green triangles is now reversed.
Here is an image of the two triangles superimposed, which shows the difference in the two hypotenuse...

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 | Caitalin Location: Age: Unknown Posts:
| Posted on: 2006-03-04 Admin edit User was deleted |
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 | Lezlee798 Location: Europe Age: 19 Posts: 16
| Posted on: 2006-03-05 its math. u wouldn't get it!!!
do u even think??? |
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 | Caitalin Location: Age: Unknown Posts:
| Posted on: 2006-03-05 Admin edit User was deleted |
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 | GunBoundAdiktus Location: Asia Age: 27 Posts: 17
| Posted on: 2006-03-06 Its corny |
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 | zachMM1 Location: North America Age: 20 Posts: 133
| Posted on: 2006-03-06 Thats pretty weird. |
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 | Tanzeli Location: Europe Age: 20 Posts: 28
| Posted on: 2006-03-06 Simple if ur not stupid |
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 | Caitalin Location: Age: Unknown Posts:
| Posted on: 2006-03-06 Admin edit User was deleted |
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 | darksea Location: Europe Age: 21 Posts: 23
| Posted on: 2006-03-07 It is so simple that it is dumb like u caitalin |
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 | onefootinhell Location: Europe Age: 24 Posts: 177
| Posted on: 2006-03-07 It is not a real triangl eleave it at that Caitalin |
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 | stuart fowler Location: North America Age: 22 Posts: 15
| Posted on: 2006-03-13 STUPID |
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 | Summ0ne Location: North America Age: 22 Posts: 68
| Posted on: 2006-03-18 All of you are math impared. |
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 | ProphetSaint Location: North America Age: 26 Posts: 163
| Posted on: 2006-03-18 I agree with SummOne. And leave Caitalin alone. |
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 | aza-14 Location: Europe Age: 22 Posts: 3
| Posted on: 2006-03-19 I well simple if u fink bout it |
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 | JewKiller Location: North America Age: Unknown Posts: 13
| Posted on: 2006-03-23 I dont get it |
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 | Chunee Location: North America Age: 26 Posts: 175
| Posted on: 2006-03-24 OK |
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