Your buddy, Rick, had devised a plan to get rich, and proceeded to share it with you.
"Here's what I'll do: Take an 8" by 8" sheet of gold foil, 64 inches square, and cut it up (as in the picture on the left, below). Take the pieces and rearrange them to form the 5" by 13" rectangle (shown on the right, below), giving me 65 square inches of gold foil."
"Now, I'll keep one square inch as profit, melt down the rest and repeat until I'm as rich as I want to be!"
Where's the flaw in Rick's logic?
Scroll down for the answer.
The Answer:
There is still only 64 square inches of gold. If you look closely at the 5" by 13" rectangle, you'll see a small gap, shown in red. That's where the "phantom" 1 square inch of gold came from.
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