Draw these 9 points forming a \(3\times 3\) grid:
Can you join the 9 dots with only 4 consecutive straight lines, without lifting the pencil from the paper?
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The nine-dot puzzle
It is perhaps the most famous emblem of lateral thinking. The interesting thing is not to get out of the square, but to discover that square was never in the statement.
Hints
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- The obstacle is not in the lines, but in the framework that your head takes for granted.
- Nothing forces the strokes to remain within the square formed by the points.
- The solution appears when you extend some lines beyond the grid.
Solution
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Answer: Yes you can: you have to get out of the square that you imagine. Explanation: The difficulty is not in drawing four lines, but in the tacit assumption that they must remain within the contour of the nine points. The statement does not require it. The solution is to extend some strokes beyond the $3\times3$ grid, so that direction changes are made outside that mental frame. That's why this riddle became a classic symbol of lateral thinking.
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