As the students worked on this problem, some were convinced that they could decide if the areas were equal (or not) by whether or not they could cut the triangle into a set of haphazard pieces and fit them on the rectangle so that they cover the space (see fig. 5.31a). Others thought about how to organize the cutting and pasting by, for example, cutting the triangle into two pieces to make it into a rectangle that matches the other rectangles (see fig. 5.31b).