After the teacher said this, Alicia indeed continued to think about how she saw the problem. the lines need to be no longer than the distance across the square," she said to herself. So she tried several more solutions, but none of them worked either.
The teacher walked by Alicia's desk and saw what Alicia was doing. She repeated her earlier comment:
“Have you assumed anything about how long the lines ought to be?"
Alicia stared at the teacher blankly, but then smiled and said, “Hmm! You didn't actually say that the lines could be no longer than the matrix! Why not make them longer?" So she experimented again using oversized lines and soon discovered a solution:
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