A general has 960 soldiers. How many different ways can he arrange his battalion in a symmetric hollow square?
The answer to this question is 10. I solved this question using the method that Alison used. Alison had four equal rectangular shapes within the dots of the hollow squares. I simply divided 960 by 4. This gave me a result of 240. The rectangles that Allison had were x*y for area (as all rectangles do). I simply found every single possible combination that resulted in 240 for the product.
These are the possible combinations:
1) 1*240
2) 2*120
3) 3*80
4) 4*60
5) 5*48
6) 6*40
7) 8*30
8) 10*24
9) 12*20
10) 15*16
I earlier sent a solution but I accidentally typed 11 not 10...