Yoak: More Lewis Carroll – The Square Window
This puzzle is taken from a letter Carroll wrote to a 14-year-old girl named Helen Fielden. Carroll writes:
I don’t know if you’re fond of puzzles, or not. If you are, try this. If not, never mind. A gentlemen (a nobleman let us say, to make it more interesting) had a sitting-room with only one window in it — a square window, 3 feet high and 3 feet wide. Now, he had weak eyes, and the window gave too much light, so (don’t you like “so” in a story?) he sent for the builder, and told hm to alter it, so as to give half the light. Only, he was to keep it square — he was to keep it 3 feet high — and he was to keep it 3 feet wide. How did he do it? Remember, he wasn’t allowed to use curtains, or shutters, or coloured glass, or anything of that sort.
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Blaine said,
September 11, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Oh well, I tried to add something but the commenting system stripped it.
[spoiler]Look at unicode character 25C7[/spoiler]
jyoak said,
September 11, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Blaine, that’s right, and very cleverly expressed! :-)