Five squares are made up from the 16 sticks below:

   _ _ _
 _|_|_|_|
|_|_|

Move just two of the sticks without disturbing or overlapping the other 14 sticks to make only 4 identical squares, still using all 16 sticks.

(In reply to re: Diagram Solution by pcbouhid)

PCB, this was the source code that I saw when I went back in to look at it.  I think that I actually did edit it somewhat too.

"<P>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;_&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; _&nbsp;<BR>&nbsp;_|_|_|_| <BR>|_|&nbsp; |_|<BR></P>
<P><I>Edited on <B>September 7, 2005, 2:29 am</B></I> </P>"

Consider the 'o' as being a space.

I typed:

"o_o_ <br>

_|_|_|_|<br>

|_|o|_|<br>"

I was expecting that I might have to edit this to show you, but it all stays in place, maybe the quotes have preserved my layout and stopped the perplexus interpreter formatting it as a 'picture'. 

As I look at the 'source code' I note that the spaces, coded as: "&nbsp;", had to be tripled in the first line - unsure whether I consciously did that by a later edit now or not.

   I haven't read Tristan's comment properly, but I expect that he has something similar to offer.

Edited on September 8, 2005, 7:22 am

Posted by brianjn on 2005-09-08 07:10:49