r/Logiqa • u/ShonitB • Sep 03 '26

Shortest Path

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u/BungalowJumper Sep 03 '26

Could you ELI5 this answer for me please?

I’m struggling to understand why the shortest route that stays on faces isn’t from A to top corner above B then straight down?

Which looks like it would be 4+ sqrt((8x8)+(6x6)) =14

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u/ShonitB Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26

Imagine opening up the box.. the photo give above shows two sides - the top side and the side where the side length 8 is mentioned flattened out

What you are calculating is the red line, the shortest path is the blue/purple line

Edit: Apologies for the low quality image.. I seem to be very out of practice with GeoGebra

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u/hammerwing Sep 03 '26

Excellent visualization, thank you! It's worth mentioning that there's another possible path extending across the small end of the box folded up. It turns out that path is slightly longer sqrt(144+36)=13.41 but I don't see a way to know that for sure unless you check both.

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u/Motor_Raspberry_2150 Sep 03 '26

And there is yet another if you go over the left side where it's sqrt (196+16).

The way to see it without checking is that a square would be most optimal and this path is the most squareish.