SOLUTION: In Japan, to get on a train you are not allowed to have an object over the length of 36 inches. How did a man get on a train with a ceremonial sword of 42 inches long?

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Question 214110: In Japan, to get on a train you are not allowed to have an object over the length of 36 inches. How did a man get on a train with a ceremonial sword of 42 inches long?
Answer by Earlsdon(6103) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The man could package the 42-inch sword in a flat box whose dimensions are:
h = 36 inches, w = 22 inches, and depth of, say, 2 inches.
Why would this work?
Let's say that sword is placed in the flat box so that it lies along the diagonal of the box.
So with a diagonal of 42 inches, a height of 36 inches, and a width of 22 inches, we can see, from the Pythagorean theorem, that the sword would fit inside the box and the box would not exceed 36 inches in length.
c = the diagonal (length of the sword), a = 36 (the length of the box) and b = 22 (the width of the box).

The actual width of the box really need be only 21.6 inches but I rounded up the nearest inch.