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 "square" profile will not be square if we follow Happy's directions -- which was also my original thoughts to the solution. (This is why the first cut, which seemed "unnecessary" turns out to be crucial.) The profile will be half an elipse.

What you have to do is make TWO cuts for the triangle profile, marking the diagonals of a rectangular profile twice as high as wide ("Wide being the diameter of the circular profile. The piece that's left will present a triangular profile which is an isosoles triangle as high as its base.

In three demensions, the piece of wood will have a pointed ridge along its top which is the same length as the diameter.

Posted by TomM on 2002-05-30 17:40:35