Geometry & Figures

Problem

Fold or half-turn overlap reveals symmetry

A 2x2 grid of unit squares has its two bottom cells filled with identical shaded right triangles, and its two top cells empty. I have 2 more triangle tiles to place. I must draw a shaded triangle in each top cell so that the whole shaded figure is line-symmetric (one half folds exactly onto the other).
Geometry
Your answer
How to solve
Strategy Draw a Diagram — Symmetry is something you see, so I draw the grid and test fold lines. Imagining (or actually) folding the paper along a candidate line and checking whether the shaded halves land on top of each other is exactly the 'half-turn / fold overlap' idea of this lesson. I sketch the two bottom tiles, pick a fold line, and figure out what the top tiles must be so the fold matches.
1STEP 1

Describe each filled bottom tile

Both bottom cells are shaded in the lower-left triangle, the slant running top-left to bottom-right.

2STEP 2

Try the vertical fold line and reject it

A vertical fold turns a lower-left triangle into a lower-right one, so the bottom row cannot match.

3STEP 3

Use the horizontal fold line instead

Fold along the horizontal middle instead, sending each bottom tile straight up into an empty cell.

4STEP 4

Mirror each bottom tile upward to find the top tiles

Flipping a lower-left triangle over a horizontal crease gives an upper-left triangle.

5STEP 5

Check the finished figure folds onto itself

Folded along that middle line, the top shading lands exactly on the bottom shading.

Answer
Fill BOTH top cells with a shaded upper-left triangle (slant from the bottom-left corner to the top-right corner). The figure is then line-symmetric about the horizontal middle line.
Two tiles are used, one per empty cell, as required. The completed shaded shape (top row pointing up, bottom row pointing down) is a mirror pair across the horizontal center line, so it genuinely has a line of symmetry. The total shaded area is 4 half-squares = 2 squares, balanced top and bottom.
Takeaway

Fold the paper in half: whatever you draw on top should land right on the matching shape underneath.

  • Describe each filled bottom tile
  • Try the vertical fold line and reject it
  • Use the horizontal fold line instead
  • Mirror each bottom tile upward to find the top tiles
  • Check the finished figure folds onto itself
Where next?