Putnam 1988 Problem A1 Let S = { (x, y) : |x| - |y| ≤ 1 and |y| ≤ 1 }. Sketch S and find its area. Solution
: 6. Trivial. The region is the rectangle (-2, 1), (2, 1), (2, -1), (-2, -1) less the two triangles (2, 1), (1, 0), (2, -1) and (-2, 1), (-1, 0), (-2, -1). Hence the area is 8 - 2.1 = 6. Putnam 1988 © John Scholes jscholes@kalva.demon.co.uk 12 Dec 1998