Curry Triangle
Illustration
Alternate name
Definition
The Curry triangle, also sometimes called the missing square puzzle, is a dissection fallacy created by American neuropsychiatrist L. Vosburgh Lions as an example of a phenomenon discovered by Paul Curry. The figure apparently shows that a triangle of area 60, a triangle of area 58 containing a rectangular hole, and a broken rectangle of area 59 can all be formed out of the same set of 6 polygonal pieces. The explanation for this lies in the inaccuracy of the initial subdivision. In the diagrams, the small and large right triangles are similar, hence they cannot have perpendicular sides of lengths (2, 5) and (3, 7), respectively, as apparently shown in the drawing.
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