Genady

It was about 30 years ago. Might be irrelevant now.

I thought of a way that might make this puzzle a bit more transparent (pun intended, see below). You have a plane with the grid points on it as described in the OP. Somebody gives you a transparency with an inkblot on it. You position the transparency on top of your plane in such a way that the inkblot does not cover or touch any of the grid points. Prove that this positioning can be done for inkblot of any shape as long as its area is less than unity.

Good, I can do that. Although, I like to get the same nice presentation without enlarging the entire expression. Regardless, are there advantages of Latex vs Word? Specifically, why would I use Latex here rather than Word?

You have (correctly) shown that some shapes can be placed entirely on the white. However, the question is to show that any shape with area < 1 can be placed this way. Maybe I'm missing something in English here? Is the correct way to say this, "any given shape ..."? Or "arbitrary shape"?

Exactly. +1 What is a better way to reply when asked why one wants to work in Merrill Lynch? Just replace "help us" with "help you": Working At Merrill Lynch: Employee Reviews And Culture - Zippia

Perhaps we're talking about different companies. In my case, if the interviewer asks such a bs question and the applicant verbatim repeats their bs mission statement, we both smile, it creates a good rapport, and we go to substance. One of my winning answers to a substantial question was (from 27 years ago), "I understand that you're looking for a person who can efficiently upgrade your system from the old platform A to the new platform B. I have this-and-this experience with A and such-and-such experience with B. I am the right person to do this job."

If "here" they mean the company, you could just repeat their mission statement. If they mean the specific position you're applying for, your answer should be more substantial.

Achievements in mathematics are not trivial. This statement: is trivial.

Isn't it trivial?

The questions, have been answered:

From past to future. Whose? What about it? I am not familiar with this terminology.

From my experience being on both sides of that table, the only reason to ask this question was to see what to expect, straight answer or bs.

I don't understand (again).

In which way?

An honest answer was the only answer I was looking for when I was the interviewer.

Accepted.

So? - I was not talking about solving. - I was not talking about "everything." - Math evolves.

You do not need to apologize because I have no idea what you are talking about.

You are applying for a job in a company, and you don't know why?

I also think that because of the aforementioned conceptualization issues, mathematics is the only valid language to describe that.

I think that billions of neurons are just not enough and a brain with trillions or more neurons is required to conceptualize this.

Like in the previous missing area puzzle (https://www.scienceforums.net/topic/131527-find-the-missing-area/?do=findComment&comment=1239116), it is helpful to switch to triangles: The area in question is x+y.

What are advantages of using Latex vs MS Word for math expressions in the posts? At least visually, IMO, the latter is better than the former. Compare Latex: MS Word: Plus, the latter gives more presentation choices such as font, size, etc.

Do they need to stay in the 3x3 configuration?

As we don't have much to do with areas of arbitrary shapes like these, but we know much about areas of triangles, let's make the triangles: The triangles above are named, a to h. The puzzle is, to find the area a+h.