How do you connect 12 dots with 5 straight lines without lifting pencil?

Answer 1

Here are the 12 dots, labeled so we can talk about them:

[1] - [ 2 ] - [ 3 ] - [ 4 ] -

[5] - [ 6 ] - [ 7 ] - [ 8 ] -

[9] - [10] - [11] - [12] -

-- Put your pencil down on #9, and don't pick it up until you're finished.

-- Draw line-1 up through #5 and #1, and keep going up for a ways,

just far enough so you can do the next step with a straight line.

-- Draw line-2 slanting down through #2, #7, and #12.

-- Draw line-3 straight to the left, through #11, #10, and back to #9.

-- Draw line-4 slanting up, through #6 and #3, and keep going for

a ways, until you're exactly straight up above #4.

-- Draw line-5 straight down, through #4 and #8 .

It all depends on the arrangement of the dots.

Besides, there is nothing about straight lines, so used curved lines instead

distribute the 12 dots around the perimeter of a pentagon

Since you didn't specify the lines have to be the same length... Arrange the dots in a grid as follows :-

OOOO

OOOO

OOOO

Then - starting at he top left corner, draw a 'square spiral' (doesn't matter whether you go clockwise or anti--clockwise) - this will cover ALL the dots AND use only five lines !

See Related Link below for a graphic.

It all depends on the arrangement of the dots.

Besides, there is nothing about straight lines, so used curved lines instead