The challenge presented Feb. 13, 1998
One morning a farmer, who was out standing in his field, noticed a strange pattern emblazoned in the vegetation which he, by careful measurement, determined to be a perfect right triangle with an area of exactly one acre. Certain that this was the work of extraterrestrial beings, he decided to make some indication to them that he wished to communicate. The farmer placed a stake in the ground at each midpoint of the three sides of the right triangle. He then tied a goat to the stake at the midpoint of the hypotenuse and a sheep to each stake at the midpoints of the two legs. The ropes were just long enough for each animal to reach the endpoints of its side of the triangle.
Now the sheep were much smarter than the farmer and realized the whole space alien thing was bogus. They were far more interersted in matters of reality, such as how much food they would have left to eat after the goat devoured everything it could.
How much area is available to the two sheep (combined) that the goat cannot reach?
Solution