jml@cs.strath.ac.uk (Joseph McLean) (11/05/86)
A pentagon can't be inscribed in a square ? Absurd.Whoever said that all 5 corners of the pentagon need to touch the square ? The pentagon can be made as small as necessary to fit inside the square so that we know that a pentagon can be inscribed.The object is then to find the largest such.See postings by Dave desJardins and myself in net.math. jml.
richl@penguin.uss.tek.com (Rick Lindsley) (11/08/86)
Joseph McLean writes: > A pentagon can't be inscribed in a square ? Absurd.Whoever said that > all 5 corners of the pentagon need to touch the square ? My definition of "inscribe", from Webster's, states that all vertices of the inscribed polygon must touch a boundary of the polygon in which it is inscribed. Makes sense, when you think about it. Or else, here's two inscribed squares for you: +--+ | | +--+--+ | | +--+ Who said that all 4 corners needed to touch the square? :-) Rick