An old adage states that "You can't fit a square peg in a round hole." Actually, you can, it just won't fill the hole. If a hole is 4 inches in diameter, what is the approximate width of the largest square peg that fits in the round hole?

Question

Mathematics

Emelia White

17 April, 10:17

An old adage states that "You can't fit a square peg in a round hole." Actually, you can, it just won't fill the hole. If a hole is 4 inches in diameter, what is the approximate width of the largest square peg that fits in the round hole?

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Answers (1)

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Jaslyn Nichols · Answer 1

Suppose the peg is like a rectangular prism:

It will be a right triangle with two sides of 2 and 2 because the diameter is 4.

c=√ (2²+2²)

c=2√2

so the width of the largest peg is 2√2 or 2.83 inch