Sunday Afternoon Maths XLI

Let the radius of the small circles be \(r\). The are of half of one of these circles is \(\frac{1}{2}\pi r^2\).

The side of the square is \(2r\) and so the area of the square is \(4r^2\). Therefore the area of the whole shape is \((4+2\pi)r^2\).

By Pythagoras' Theorem, the radius of the large circle is \(r\sqrt{2}\). Therefore the area of the circle is \(2\pi r^2\). This means that the shaded area is \((4+2\pi)r^2 - 2\pi r^2\) or \(4r^2\).

This is the same as the area of the square, so the ratio is 1:1.

It can be done with two colours. Let's call these red and blue.

Draw the polygon and colour it red. As each line is added to is, swap the colours on one side of the line which leaving them the same on the other side. At the end of this process you will have any polygon coloured with two colours.

How many regions will the regular shape be split into by the lines?