Seminar Details
Cutting Rectangles into Two Congruent Pieces
- Start Date: November 6, 2025
- Event Start Time: 5:00 PM
- Event End Time: 6:00 PM
- Seminar Series: Experimental Math Seminar
- Presenter(s): Natalya Ter-Saakov - Rutgers University || Robert Dougherty-Bliss - Dartmouth College
- Event Location: Online Event
- Presentation Type: Stand Alone Presentation
- Abstract:
In the March 2025 issue of Pour La Science (the French analog of Scientific American), Jean-Paul Delahaye, (the French (and contemporary) analog of Martin Gardner), solved (in collaboration with his wife, Martine Raison), the problem of counting the number of ways of cutting a 3 by 2n checkerboard into two (connected) congruent pieces, and proved the simple explicit formula 3n+1-n-1. When we asked Delahaye whether he knew the answer for a four by n rectangle, he replied that he has no clue, but the problem seems to him to be très difficile. We will describe how, with the right grammar, and some help from our silicon friends, we solved this challenging problem.
(Joint work by the two of us with Doron Zeilberger).