THE MATHEMATICAL PROOF

When Slobodan Jaksic stumbled upon our brain teaser, the software engineer living in Serbia counted the triangles sideways along the x-axis and vertically along the y-axis before assembling his proof. As such, it breaks down into horizontal and vertical steps.

‘I sent my “conceptual solution” using Mathematical Induction to Francis Bonahon, Professor of Mathematics, University of Southern California,’ Jaksic says. ‘He provided … his solution to the problem, with a correct formula, using a different approach.’ Let that be a reminder that, even among the pros, there are always multiple ways to approach a problem.