Mathematicians aren't squeamish about doing dissections, but they do often come unhinged. Now computational geometers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge have proven it's possible to do mathematical dissections without falling to pieces. The victims in this case are not frogs but polygons: simple geometric shapes bounded by straight sides. In the early 19th century, mathematicians proved that any two polygons with the same area can be cut into a finite number of matching pieces. For example, it's possible to cut a square into four pieces and rearrange them into an equilateral triangle.
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