U of T math professor emeritus Ed Barbeau is able to produce this object using only a pair of scissors and one rectangular piece of paper. If you believe that only one side of the sheet faces up, look again.
This is one of many puzzles that Barbeau used to present to his math class for non-math students – often with great results. “Being good at math doesn’t necessarily make you good at puzzles,” says Barbeau. “In fact, English students scored very highly on [my puzzles] because they approach math in a non-standard way.”
Find more mathematical challenges in Barbeau’s book After Math: Puzzles and Brainteasers (Wall & Emerson, 1995).
Recent Posts
Clearing the Air
U of T wants to drastically cut carbon emissions by 2050. It’s enlisting on-campus ingenuity for help
The Extremism Machine
Online disinformation poses a danger to society. Researchers at U of T’s Citizen Lab are tracking it – and trying to figure out how to stop it
Charting Hip Hop’s Course
Professor Mark V. Campbell grew up during the early years of rap music. Now, he is helping preserve Canadian hip-hop culture for future generations