Polyiamonds - Oct. 3-7, 1994 Boutros and Bernice were riding the bus home after school when Boutros pulled out a piece of paper. "Check out this puzzle our teacher gave us today," he said. "It's from some book by a guy named Martin Gardner. It seems sort of like tangrams or something." Bernice read the paper: "Polyiamonds are figures made by fitting together two or more equilateral triangles. The simplest polyiamond, a 'diamond', consists of two equilateral triangles. There are twelve different polyiamonds that contain six equilateral triangles each. They are shown below. Can you figure out how to fit eight of them together to form a six-pointed star? It may be necessary to turn some of the pieces over." 1. __ __ 2. __ __ __ 3. /\ 4. __ /\ /\ / \ /\ /\ /\ /__\ /\ /\ /__\/__\/ \/__\/__\/__\ \ /\ /__\/__\ \ /\ \/__\ __ \ /\ / \/__\ \ /\ / \/__\/ \/__\/ /\ __ __ 5. __ /__\ 6. /\ /\ 7. /\ /\ 8. /\ /\ \ /\ /\ /__\/__\ __ /__\/__\ /__\/__\ \/__\/__\ \ /\ / \ /\ / \ /\ /\ \ / \/__\/ \/__\/ \/ \/__\ \/ \ / \/ __ /\ /\ / /\ /\ 9. __ /__\ __ 10. __ /__\/ 11. /__\ 12. /__\ __ \ /\ /\ / /\ /\ / /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ \/__\/__\/ /__\/__\/ /__\/__\ /__\/__\/__\ /\ / /__\/ "No problem," said Bernice. "We'll just trace them and cut them out and play around until we get it. Why don't we both try it, and then I'll call you after dinner?" "Cool," said Boutros. "Talk to you later." Correct solutions to the problem were submitted by: Zac Derr, Shaler Area High School Learners from the Colorado Creative Education, Paonia, CO: Younger Group I: Brian Quinn, Ryan Foster, Michael Cragg, Lima Manning, Lauren McEvoy, Julia Oppenheimer, and Louise Schumm. Younger Group II: Alexander Cragg, Hale Manning, and Nick Rung. Older learners were: Isaac Bogart, Dannie Kobrin, Eli Wolcott, and Dan Hurlbutt. Kelley Schmidt, Lauren St. Clair, Jen Hinkel, Kristin Burton, and Erin Foley, Mount St. Joseph Academy Roy Holtman, College Park High School Shanden Mirabedi, College Park High School Michael Summers, College Park High School Michele Gibney, College Park High School Nicole McKeown, Shaler Area High School Joe Bailey, Shaler Area High School Lisa Moore, Shaler Area High School Anthony DeLuca, Shaler Area Senior High Missy Kochanowski & Melissa Hudak, Shaler Area High School Samantha Brenner, Fairfield HS Next problem || Previous problem || Table of Contents || Forum Home Page