5-6. A rectangular table of size cm cm is covered with identical sheets of paper of size 5 cm cm. The first sheet touches the bottom left corner, and each subsequent sheet is placed one centimeter higher and one centimeter to the right of the previous one. The last sheet touches the top right corner. What is the length in centimeters?
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Answer: 77.
Solution I. Let's say we have placed another sheet of paper. Let's look at the height and width of the rectangle for which it will be in the upper right corner.
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We will call such a rectangle the current one. Notice that for each new current rectangle, both the width and the height are 1 cm larger than the previous one. Initially, when there was only one sheet of paper, the width of the large rectangle was 8 cm, and at the end, it was 80 cm. Thus, a total of sheets of paper were added. The height of the current rectangle also increased by cm, initially it was 5, so .
Solution II. As in the first solution, let's look at the length and width of the current rectangles. Again, notice that for each new current rectangle, both the length and the width are 1 cm larger than the previous one. However, we will draw a different conclusion: specifically, the difference between the width and the height of the current rectangle is always the same! (Such a value that does not change during a certain process is called an invariant.) Since initially the width was 3 cm greater than the height, i.e., cm, at the end it should also be 3 cm greater, so the answer is cm.