A standard piece of wood (one that can be found at just about any wood store), is cut with two straight cuts. After being cut, the wood will fit perfectly through three holes: circle, square, and triangle. What piece of wood was used, and how was it cut?

The way I interpreted this problem, I didn't think that the wood had to remain in one piece.

If you assume that it doesn't and also that only some of the wood has to fit through each hole, you can take a bed post (assuming a hardware store would sell that) - one of the square ones with the round ball on top - then cut the round top off, and slice the square leg part in half diagonally.  The top fits the round hole, one half of the leg fits the triangular hole, and when you hold both halves together the leg fits the square hole.

But that's kind of a lame solution.  A better one is to take a dowel of any length, use your first cut to make it as tall as it is wide (diameter=height), then use your second cut to go diagonally from one corner of the (now square) profile to the opposite corner.  When you hold the two pieces together, the roundness of the dowel fits the circle hole, the squareness of the profile fits, well, the square hole, and to fit the triangle hole you separate the pieces and arrange them side to side.

The official solution is of course the best, since it is the simplest.

Though I did like the idea about crumpling up a ball of paper, too...

Posted by Mea on 2004-06-22 03:17:36