3 Circles and 3 Squares Riddle

[madcat05]

A friend from school told me about this riddle.

There are 3 Circles and 3 Squares. Each circle must have a line going to each square. So each circle should have 3 lines going to each square. I've included an image to help.

The lines cannot cross each other and the lines can't go through the squares.

Any body know how to do this?

[Dallas]

ugh i use to know this trick.

[david]

Its impossible. Been trying this for 5 years.

There is another version out there saying the squares are houses and the circles represent electricty, water, and telephone line.

[madcat05]

in my math class today we had a sub and the kid in front of me spent the entire class trying to do this. He failed every time.

The person I heard this from said there was a solution though.

[lhommefm]

We had that offered from our middle school - with a 200 dollar cash reward if you got it - no one got it. The trick is that it is impossible from a 2d standpoint. You must curl the paper into a tube shape. Do a search on Google for electricity, water, telephone and it should come up with some stuff.

[madcat05]

I can't seem to find anything on google, but I do remember hearing about the tube shape paper in middle school.

[oik]

you're supposed to go around with the first.

then go straight to them with the second.

then go through the second circle for the third.

please hold while i make a pretty picture.

edit:

here is my uber-1337 photoshop paintbrush:

you can clean it up some, but it gets the idea across.

[AshMan]

So, it has to be done in 3D space, not 2D space, right?

[gigapixels Veteran]

you're supposed to go around with the first.

then go straight to them with the second.

then go through the second circle for the third.

please hold while i make a pretty picture.

edit:

here is my uber-1337 photoshop paintbrush:

you can clean it up some, but it gets the idea across.

Good job. I didn't even realize I was able to go through the circles... But there's nothing saying you can't, so it's legal ;)

[madcat05]

thats is a good way of doing, as the rules say nothing of the circles.

[Soviet]

nothing says you cant.. I'd have that first one go around the second circle so only one is going through. just to clean it up a bit.