Planting Trees 3

Answer: Arrange the nine trees in a special pattern that creates ten lines of three.

Position the trees in three rows:

• Top row: three trees evenly spaced
• Bottom row: three trees directly below, evenly spaced
• Middle row: three trees positioned between the other two rows, but shifted inward

The key is where you place the middle row. Each middle tree should sit at the intersection of two diagonal lines from the outer rows. Specifically:

• The center tree of the middle row lies on the line connecting the top-left and bottom-left trees
• The left tree of the middle row lies where two diagonals cross: one from top-left to bottom-center, and one from top-center to bottom-left
• The right tree of the middle row lies where two other diagonals cross: one from top-center to bottom-right, and one from top-right to bottom-center

This arrangement creates exactly ten rows of three trees:

• Three horizontal rows (top, middle, bottom)
• Two diagonal rows going through the center tree of the middle row
• Four diagonal rows passing through the left and right trees of the middle row
• One additional diagonal completing the count

The trick is that the middle trees each belong to four or five different rows, maximizing the overlap and allowing nine trees to form ten lines.