Can a 4x11 rectangular grid of square blocks be covered (having no overlaps), with multiple copies of the tetromino (including rotations, but not reflections) as shown below?

  __
|__|_____
|__|__|__|

If so, give an example. If not, provide a proof that this cannot be achieved.

Note: Each of the 44 square blocks of the 4x11 grid has the same shape and size as each of the 4 square blocks of the tetromino.

As ed and brian found, tetrominoes made up square unit blocks will not cover the 4x11 rectangular grid of unit square blocks without overlap.

If the tetrominoes could be composed of square blocks of  smaller yet proportional to the square blocks of the grid, such as 1/2, then it would be possible to cover, without overlap, the grid with the L-shaped tetrominoes.

Posted by Dej Mar on 2010-03-22 23:11:02