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just something i was thinking about today/this evening at work in between processes. actually, the square is not really the challenge.... its the perfect 90deg. angle. if you had that, making a square would be simple.

lets say you were stranded on a desert island with no measuring tools of any kind (you could have a knife and axe and a pencil and the like), and nothing that you already know the exact dimentions of. granted you could make string or a cereal bowl or whe\atever. but i am talking about a perfect 90deg angle.... and that means you could prove how/why you know its exactly 90deg (remember proofs in geometry?).

there are many different solutions to this, so if one person has an answer then try to think of a different one. using only basic materials, the laws of physics, geometry, trig, etc. and no guesswork.

simple...make an exact clone of Bill Gates...

There ya go, a perfect square

Well on a calm day the water would be level, or a pool of water dug by you, tie a weight on the end of a string and hang it over the water, the lne of the water and the line of the string would provide you with a 90 degree angle.

its simple to make a square all have to do is find units of equal measure. if you draw 3 lines in the sand and then draw 4 lines of equal measurement at an approxaimet right angle, then adjuste the angle until it measured 5 from point to point you would have a perfect right angle to make a square

ex a
- -
3 - 5
- - - - -
I - 4 - I

ex b

o
.. o
o... o
........o
o..o..o..o

There is no such thing as a perfect square, nor a perfect circle. Every thing will have its irregularities at some point. Thus in this world nothing can or ever will be perfect. We can allways hope to attain perfection, but there will allways be some irregularitie. Thas just the way it is shugah.

Originally posted by S1lv3r
There is no such thing as a perfect square, nor a perfect circle. Every thing will have its irregularities at some point. Thus in this world nothing can or ever will be perfect. We can allways hope to attain perfection, but there will allways be some irregularitie. Thas just the way it is shugah.

thats a good one to tell customers when the complain about shotty construction !

true, there is no such thing as a truely perfect anything. i also know this as i am a CNC machinist and programmer. lerning a 5-axis Deckel Maho DMU 50 eVolution right now .so i was not expecting to have to call out for a degree tolerance.

okay, lets say +/- .5 deg. not impossible, but not achievable by guessing (and i like the solution(s) so far). shows how there is more than one way to protract a cat

Draw a straight line.
From any 2 points in that line, using a compass of some sort, draw 1 circle around each point, using circles with sizes that will cross at 2 points.
draw a line connecting the 2 points where the circles crossed.
you have just made 4 perfect right angles

Originally posted by Randy
its simple to make a square all have to do is find units of equal measure. if you draw 3 lines in the sand and then draw 4 lines of equal measurement at an approxaimet right angle, then adjuste the angle until it measured 5 from point to point you would have a perfect right angle to make a square

ex a
- -
3 - 5
- - - - -
I - 4 - I

ex b

o
.. o
o... o
........o
o..o..o..o

Yup. The old 3/4/5 rule. And when you're done doing that, you can measure (with anything) from corner to corner. Both sets of corners should measure the same 'exact' measurement. Emphasis on exact as there is no exact perfect circle/square/whatever that we can ever draw.