Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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In 1774 William Hooper published Rational Recreations, a compendium of instructions for all sorts of amusements from making thunder sounds to crafting fireworks. Also included were more light amusements, such as one of the first ever "Vanishing Square Paradox"es as they've been dubbed. While this could be framed as a vanishing square problem, the way it is presented is more of a materializing square problem - where an 8x8 square is cut and rearranged into a figure with 65 square units of area. We'll see why the illusion is effective and how you could make more of them using the Fibonacci sequence. #maths
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Outro music: youtube.com/shorts/tfifiSdTZRg
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SOURCES
The Penguin Book of Curious and Interesting Puzzles by David Wells
Rational Recreations by William Hooper, L. Davis (archive.org/details/rationalrecreat00davigoog/page/n5/mode/2up)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooper%27s_paradox
0:00 Intro
1:50 Square from Where?
3:21 History
4:44 Where the Error Is
7:07 Where the Numbers Come From
10:49 Conclusion
Check out my math fashion brand! mathshion.com
In 1774 William Hooper published Rational Recreations, a compendium of instructions for all sorts of amusements from making thunder sounds to crafting fireworks. Also included were more light amusements, such as one of the first ever "Vanishing Square Paradox"es as they've been dubbed. While this could be framed as a vanishing square problem, the way it is presented is more of a materializing square problem - where an 8x8 square is cut and rearranged into a figure with 65 square units of area. We'll see why the illusion is effective and how you could make more of them using the Fibonacci sequence. #maths
Join Wrath of Math to get exclusive videos, lecture notes, and more:
youtube.com/channel/UCyEKvaxi8mt9FMc62MHcliw/join
More Math Chats: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLztBpqftvzxXQDmPmSOwXSU9vOHgty1RO
Outro music: youtube.com/shorts/tfifiSdTZRg
Follow Wrath of Math on...
● Instagram: instagram.com/wrathofmathedu
● TikTok: tiktok.com/@wrathofmathedu
● X: https://x.com/wrathofmathedu
SOURCES
The Penguin Book of Curious and Interesting Puzzles by David Wells
Rational Recreations by William Hooper, L. Davis (archive.org/details/rationalrecreat00davigoog/page/n5/mode/2up)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooper%27s_paradox
0:00 Intro
1:50 Square from Where?
3:21 History
4:44 Where the Error Is
7:07 Where the Numbers Come From
10:49 Conclusion
