THE BETSY ROSS PUZZLE.
(
Various Dissection Puzzles)
A correspondent asked me to supply him with the solution to an old
puzzle that is attributed to a certain Betsy Ross, of Philadelphia, who
showed it to George Washington. It consists in so folding a piece of
paper that with one clip of the scissors a five-pointed star of Freedom
may be produced. Whether the story of the puzzle's origin is a true one
or not I cannot say, but I have a print of the old house in Philadelphia
where the lady is said to have lived, and I believe it still stands
there. But my readers will doubtless be interested in the little poser.
Take a circular piece of paper and so fold it that with one cut of the
scissors you can produce a perfect five-pointed star.
Answer:
Fold the circular piece of paper in half along the dotted line shown in
Fig. 1, and divide the upper half into five equal parts as indicated.
Now fold the paper along the lines, and it will have the appearance
shown in Fig. 2. If you want a star like Fig. 3, cut from A to B; if you
wish one like Fig. 4, cut from A to C. Thus, the nearer you cut to the
point at the bottom the longer will be the points of the star, and the
farther off from the point that you cut the shorter will be the points
of the star.
