Critical Thinking
By edextraze321
@edextraze321 (112)
United States
September 12, 2008 7:03pm CST
Hey guys i want to encourage critical thinking and problem solving, it helps us think outside the box, and learn to do things on our own we never thought possible.
See if you can connect the dots with only 4 straight lines without lifting your pen/pencil off the paper.
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If you get this congrats then try it with 3 lines if you can do that let me know how its done, i've heard its possible but have yet to figure it out.
If you can't get it i will post the solution later, so that you know it can be done and how, but i want to give everyone a bit of time to figure it out for themselves.
If it wasn't challenging it wouldn't be worth calling critical thinking or problem solving.
4 responses
@Flying1024102 (47)
• Australia
2 Oct 08
OK four lines, I solved it in 5 minutes. About three lines, I can't solve it. Can't find the book. And I come up with this explaination:
3 lines, 9 dots.
Each line need to cover an average of 3 dots
One line cannot cover more than 3 dots
The first line can cover the maxinium of 3 dots
The second can only cover the maxinium of 2 dots
The last can cover two dots, or three dots if the last line had only covered 1 dot.
Therefore the maxinium dots covered by 3 lines = 3+2+2 = 7 dots.
@edextraze321 (112)
• United States
3 Oct 08
Well i'm glad to see your thinking, but three lines can cover 9 dots, i just don't know how unfortunatly, as soon as i figure that out i'll post the answer.
@edextraze321 (112)
• United States
30 Sep 08
sounds good, i've never been able to figure out how to complete this in 3 lines, but have been told it is possible. I love problem solving, those little books full of them are great when your bored. They can keep me busy for hours.
@marshiemallows (1010)
• Philippines
13 Sep 08
the answer using four lines is in the shape of an arrow pointer right? i'll try to figure out the other answer using three lines. lol.;-)
@edextraze321 (112)
• United States
13 Sep 08
shhh lol your not suppose to tell everyone the answer, but yes that is correct. :) good job did you already know it or did you actually attempt it and figured it out.
Sorry for the horribly display, but it was suppose to be in the shape of a box unfortunatly it got stretched, so it became a rectangle make sure when you write it out its a box.
@Flying1024102 (47)
• Australia
30 Sep 08
I've seen this on a book with solutions with three lines.
The lines are WAY outside the dots.
@gongchhua (272)
• China
6 May 09
Yes, I also saw the solution from a book. It is an interesting task to cultivate critical thinking.
