# Proving that a square can be divided into $n$ smaller squares for $n \ge 6$

I'm trying to prove that for all natural numbers $n \ge 6$, a square can be divided into $n$ smaller squares.

The smaller squares do not need to be of the same size.

So for induction, the base case is $P(6)$, which is that a square can be broken into $6$ squares (I can draw a picture to prove this).

• To clarify, you mean that a square of dimensions $n\times n$ can be divided into $n$ smaller squares? That is, a $6\times6$ square can be broken into 6 smaller squares? – apnorton Jul 25 '13 at 20:51
• @anorton, the smaller squares do NOT have to be equal in size. – Jose Jul 25 '13 at 20:53
• @Jose, please choose more specific, informative titles (I've fixed this one) rather than general titles (which are largely useless). – 6005 Jul 25 '13 at 20:56
• @anorton The size of the big square does not matter. The smaller squares do not have to go along any specific grid lines. The side length of a smaller square is allowed to be any real number. – 6005 Jul 25 '13 at 21:00
• I don't see how writing $n\in\mathbb{N}_{\geq6}$ is making the problem less clear, but anyway, cool – user67258 Jul 25 '13 at 21:01

Hint: You only need to do it for $6$, $7$, and $8$. For these, you need to produce explicit splittings.
But after that, anything differs by $3$ from an earlier case. and adding $3$ squares is easy, we just do the natural splitting of an existing square.
If one wants to do a formal induction, let $n \gt 8$. Suppose the result is true for all $i$ such that $6\le i \lt n$. We want to show it holds at $n$. By the induction assumption, it holds at $n-3$. Split one of the squares of the splitting into $n-3$ squares into $4$ squares. That gives us a splitting into $n$ squares.
• I'm not sure what he meant, but I think that you only need to do it for $4$, $6$, $7$, $8$ and $9$. Maybe he dropped the cases $4$ and $9$ since they are easy. – Ido Jul 25 '13 at 20:46
• @Ido, no. Why would you need to do 4 and 9? You can construct 6,7, and 8 and then the induction holds in general for $n \ge 6$. – 6005 Jul 25 '13 at 20:48
• @Ido: That's a matter of semantics. We are using the trivial fact that a square can be split into $4$ equal squares. Though it could be called the case $n=4$, it will cause needless confusion to call it that, since it may give the impression the induction begins at $4$. However, it does not: we can't split a square into $5$ squares. – André Nicolas Jul 25 '13 at 21:02