SMALLER RECTANGLE PARADOXES

M. Mamikon

The Rectangle Paradox is too complex to visualize what's going on. It is understandable for the students that the slopes do not match, therefore something is wrong, but what is wrong is hard to demonstrate with ordinary tools.

The following examples, with smaller Fibonacci-number sides, demonstrate more clearly the "overlap" or "gap" situations with the "misleading" unit area.

We easier see

the GAP in this case

OVERLAP in this case

And a GAP in this case

In all cases the mismatching area is ONE square unit . Can you calculate it?