A square - solution nr 1 |
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A, B, and C denotes the areas of the color each letter is located in. So, for example, C denotes the small yellow square.
Let T be the area of the total big square.
Consider the triangle which is formed by A and B together. The area of that triangle is clearly T/4.
There are 4 of the A and B triangles, so their total area is T, i.e. T=4(A+B). But since each B is overlapped by an A the 4 (A+B) triangles do not cover the whole big square, but leaves square C free in the middle. Therefore C=4A.
Notice also that, as indicated by the red lines, the area of B is 4 times the area of A, i.e. B=4A.
So
A+B = A+4A
A+B = 5A
A = (A+B)/5
Multiply by 4.
4A = 4(A+B)/5
We know that
T=4(A+B)
So we put that into what we got, and thus
4A = T/5
And we also know that C=4A
Therefore
C = T/5
So the area of the yellow square is a 5th of the big square.