a bad knot in the position shown in Fig. 33—a knot that we must not attempt to cut through—then a solution in two pieces is barred out, and it becomes a more interesting puzzle to solve it in three pieces. I have shown in Figs. 33 and 34 one way of doing this, and it will be found entertaining to discover other ways of doing it. Of course I could bar out all these other ways by introducing more knots, and so reduce the puzzle to a single solution, but it would then be overloaded with conditions.
And this brings us to another point in seeking the ideal. Do not overload your conditions, or you will make your puzzle too complex to be interesting. The simpler the conditions of a puzzle are, the better. The solution may be as complex and difficult as you like, or as happens, but the conditions ought to be easily understood, or people will not attempt a solution.
If the reader were now asked "to cut a half-square into as few pieces as possible to form a Greek cross," he would probably produce our solution, Figs, 31–32, and confidently claim that he had solved the puzzle correctly. In this way he would be wrong, because it is not now stated that the square is to be divided diagonally. Although we should always observe the exact conditions of a puzzle we must not read into it conditions that are not there. Many puzzles are based entirely on the tendency that people have to do this.
The very first essential in solving a puzzle is to be sure that you understand the exact conditions. Now, if you divided your square in half so as to produce Fig. 35 it is possible to cut it into as few as three pieces to form a Greek cross. We thus save a piece.
I give another puzzle in Fig. 36. The dotted lines are added merely to show the correct proportions of the figure—a square of 25 cells with the four corner cells cut out. The puzzle is to cut this figure into five pieces that will form a Greek cross (entire) and a square.
Fig. 35.
Fig. 36.
The solution to the first of the two puzzles last given—to cut a rectangle of the shape of a half-square into three pieces that will form a Greek cross—is shown in Figs. 37 and 38. It will be seen that we divide the long sides of the oblong into six equal parts and the short sides into three equal parts, in order to get the points that will indicate the direction of the cuts. The reader should compare this solution with some of the previous illustrations. He will see, for example, that if we continue the cut that divides B and C in the cross, we get Fig. 15.
Fig. 37.
Fig. 38.
The other puzzle, like the one illustrated in Figs. 12 and 13, will show how useful a little arithmetic may sometimes prove to be in the solution of dissection puzzles. There are twenty-one of those little square cells into which our figure is subdivided, from which we have to form both a square and a Greek cross. Now, as the cross is built up of five squares, and 5 from 21 leaves 16—a square number—we ought easily to be led to the solution shown in Fig. 39. It will be
Fig. 39.
Fig. 40.
seen that the cross is cut out entire, while the four remaining pieces form the square in Fig. 40.
Of course a half-square rectangle is the same as a double square, or two equal squares joined together. Therefore, if you want to solve the puzzle of cutting a Greek cross into four pieces to form two separate squares of the same size, all you have to do is to continue the short cut in Fig. 38 right across the cross, and you will have four pieces of the same size and shape. Now divide Fig. 37 into two equal squares by a horizontal cut midway and you will see the four pieces forming the two squares.
Fig. 41.
