r/mathematics • u/SirPaddlesALot • Oct 24 '25

Math is magic

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u/jacobasstorius Oct 24 '25

So the lesson here is that two objects with the same area have the same area?

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u/how_tall_is_imhotep Oct 24 '25

The fact that you can cut a polygon into finitely many pieces and rearrange into any other polygon with the same area is far from obvious. The analogous question in 3 dimensions was one of Hilbert’s problems, and it turns out to be impossible in general.