Notes
three squares vi solution

Solution to the Three Squares VI Puzzle

Three Squares VI

The blue and green shaded regions created by these three squares have the same area. What’s the angle?

Solution by Pythagoras' Theorem and Angles in a Quadrilateral

Three squares vi labelled

Let the side lengths of the squares be aa, bb, and cc in increasing order.

Then EBE B has length a+bca + b - c so the green region has area ab+b 2cba b + b^2 - c b.

The line segment FCF C has length cac - a, so the blue region has area:

c 2b(ca)a 2=c 2bc+baa 2 c^2 - b(c - a) - a^2 = c^2 - b c + b a - a^2

These areas are the same, so:

c 2bc+baa 2 =ab+b 2cb c 2a 2 =b 2 c 2 =a 2+b 2 \begin{aligned} c^2 - b c + b a - a^2 &= a b + b^2 - c b \\ c^2 - a^2 &= b^2 \\ c^2 &= a^2 + b^2 \end{aligned}

This means that the lengths aa, bb, and cc form the sides of a right-angled triangle, by the converse to Pythagoras' theorem. Triangle ABCA B C is a right-angled triangle with sides aa and bb, so its hypotenuse, ABA B, has length cc.

This means that triangles ADBA D B and FABF A B are both isosceles with angles AD^BA \hat{D} B and BA^DB \hat{A} D equal to each other, and BF^AB \hat{F} A and FA^BF \hat{A} B also equal to each other.

Then as the angles in a quadrilateral add up to 360 360^\circ:

360 =BF^A+FA^B+BA^D+AD^B+DB^F =2FA^B+2BA^D+90 270 =2FA^D 135 =FA^D \begin{aligned} 360^\circ &= B \hat{F} A + F \hat{A} B + B \hat{A} D + A \hat{D} B + D \hat{B} F \\ &= 2 F \hat{A} B + 2 B \hat{A} D + 90^\circ \\ 270^\circ &= 2 F \hat{A} D \\ 135^\circ &= F \hat{A} D \end{aligned}

Hence the angle is 135 135^\circ.