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Disclaimer: to keep graphic depiction of gratuitous violence to a minimum the face to be spited has been deliberately kept abstract.

Two eyes made of squares with equilateral triangles along two sides, mouth made of a square, areas of eyes sum to area of mouth

You are required to further reduce any distress this puzzle may cause the faint at heart by cutting the nose into as few pieces as possible.

Go ahead, cut up the nose (the pink square) to spite the eyes where spiting of course means completely covering them.

"Clarification": The nose and eyes are the simple geometric shapes they appear to be; which exactly is part of the puzzle.

Fair warning: lateral thinking will get you nowhere.

And, yes, this was inspired by @Florian F's blockbuster puzzle.

loopy walt
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  • Hey, @bobble, you kind of added a hint there (re the actual shape of the eyes). No big deal in this case, but I thought I'd bring it up as a matter of general policy. – loopy walt Aug 30 '21 at 21:54
  • Thinking about it, this may actually be useful for visually impaired people. So, well done! I'll go with it. – loopy walt Aug 30 '21 at 22:08
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    I wasn't intending to give a hint so much as describe the image, which I guess might count as a hint if part of the challenge is interpreting the image's shapes? The idea of good alt text is to communicate as much of the same idea as possible as the image does, for the benefit of people who can't access images (whether due to sight difficulties, or slow browsers, etc.) – bobble Aug 30 '21 at 22:19
  • Am I allowed to move the pieces after cutting them? – Stef Aug 31 '21 at 13:07
  • @Stef, not sure I understand. You may find it difficult to cover the eyes if you cannot move the pieces. – loopy walt Aug 31 '21 at 15:30
  • @loopywalt Yes I did find it difficult! But you specifically said "no lateral thinking", which made it sound like moving the pieces was cheating. – Stef Aug 31 '21 at 15:32
  • @Stef Are we having a disagreement over the difference between lateral thinking and common sense? – loopy walt Aug 31 '21 at 19:39

1 Answers1

15

A visual solution.

Five pieces:

enter image description here

Daniel Mathias
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    Looks good. That said, for me to consider the solution complete I'd require some kind of argument why the pieces are fitting together the way they do. – loopy walt Aug 31 '21 at 00:37
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    In a word: Tessellation. – Daniel Mathias Aug 31 '21 at 00:54
  • Not an expert on that, but I'd assume you'd still have to demonstrate that the nose and eye tesselations are compatible. – loopy walt Aug 31 '21 at 01:05
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    @loopywalt You didn't provide the relative dimensions of the nose and eyes in the puzzle; how could it be possible to prove that the pieces fit, without that information? – Stef Aug 31 '21 at 19:42
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    @Stef Exact geometry is explicitly stated as being part of the puzzle. This answer as it stands relies on the author's correct assumption that the eyes combined and the nose have the same surface area. Using the exact same assumption the maths can be done, as well. – loopy walt Aug 31 '21 at 20:02
  • @loopywalt Are you sure that assumption is enough? The triangles on the side look like equilateral triangles; isn't that a necessary assumption too? – Stef Aug 31 '21 at 20:05
  • @Stef you are right, although strictly speaking it is not a necessary condition, it was meant to be part of the assumption (and that the squares be squares). But still, it either works for both the visual answer and the rigorous one or for neither. – loopy walt Aug 31 '21 at 20:18