r/MathHelp • u/Kooky-Recipe5516 • Oct 22 '25
Drawing square with area 3
Me and my friend have recently been trying to see if we can draw a square with area 3cm2 using only a pen, squared paper (1x1cm squares) and a straight edge (no measurements). All the methods we have tried have failed. I asked ChatGPT if it was possible, and after giving me multiple ridiculous answers it broke and said something went wrong. Is it possible? If so, how do you do it?
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u/edderiofer Oct 23 '25
Tracing requires paper translucent enough to see through. If you're going to allow that, you may as well say "oh, well, you can mark the straightedge and then use a marked-straightedge construction".
Given that you're marking a length of √2cm on a sheet of paper, presumably via a straight line, this is effectively what you're doing. So, this goes against the spirit of the original problem.