Solution of the Week #413 - Interior Point

Since the lines meet the edges of the square at the midpoints, we can divide the square into pairs of triangles with identical areas as below.

From the puzzle a+b=33, c+d=39, therefore the entire square, 2(a+b+c+d)=144, so the square is 12x12 and the base length of each of the eight triangles is 6. Because it is a square we also know that the a and c triangles make up half the area, and the b and d triangles make up the other. So a+c=b+d=36.

With all of this information we can determine the values of the individual areas to be a=12, b=21, c=24, d=15.

Looking only at the areas a and d will pinpoint the coordinates of the interior point (4,5).