1986 AHSME Problems/Problem 6
Problem
Using a table of a certain height, two identical blocks of wood are placed as shown in Figure 1. Length 
is found to be 
inches. After rearranging the blocks as in Figure 2, length 
is found to be 
inches. How high is the table?
![[asy] size(300); defaultpen(linewidth(0.8)+fontsize(13pt)); path table = origin--(1,0)--(1,6)--(6,6)--(6,0)--(7,0)--(7,7)--(0,7)--cycle; path block = origin--(3,0)--(3,1.5)--(0,1.5)--cycle; path rotblock = origin--(1.5,0)--(1.5,3)--(0,3)--cycle; draw(table^^shift((14,0))*table); filldraw(shift((7,0))*block^^shift((5.5,7))*rotblock^^shift((21,0))*rotblock^^shift((18,7))*block,gray); draw((7.25,1.75)--(8.5,3.5)--(8.5,8)--(7.25,9.75),Arrows(size=5)); draw((21.25,3.25)--(22,3.5)--(22,8)--(21.25,8.25),Arrows(size=5)); unfill((8,5)--(8,6.5)--(9,6.5)--(9,5)--cycle); unfill((21.5,5)--(21.5,6.5)--(23,6.5)--(23,5)--cycle); label("$r$",(8.5,5.75)); label("$s$",(22,5.75)); [/asy]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/5/1/0/51083ef4d298fc4ae8f25d1d08d41f8e76b5ada8.png)
Solution
See also
| 1986 AHSME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
| Preceded by Problem 5 |
Followed by Problem 7 | |
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