[clarknova]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Quickly noticing that the area of open floor will be exactly 100 metres (9x12-8), I buy a 10 metre by 10 metre carpet that was going cheap on eBay. But how to cut it to fit the shape? I don't want to cut the carpet more than necessary. What's the smallest number of pieces I must cut the 10x10 metre carpet into, to make it fit the 12x9 space, with the 8x1 hole in the middle?

I'm no interior designer, but this is just awful. Besides having a carpet that's all cut up, the room has no space for any furniture. Though since there is a huge aquarium in the middle, it'd be an onerous task moving anything in besides a card table and some folding chairs.

Anyway:

Spoiler:

The smallest I can figure it to be is three cuts (four pieces):
1) Cut two 4x10 pieces, and then cut off a 1x2 piece from the remaining 2x10.

331111111111
331111111111
331111111111
331111111111
33________44
332222222222
332222222222
332222222222
332222222222

or

2) Cut off a 1x10 strip, cut a 1x1 square from the end of that strip, and then cut out a 1x8 strip from the middle of the remaining 9x10 square.

143333333333
143333333333
143333333333
143333333333
14________33
143333333333
143333333333
143333333333
123333333333

I can't imagine doing it in 2 cuts, but I'll keep trying.