Rectangle

A rectangle is a four-sided shape with four right angles and two pairs of sides, one long and one short. Which pair is the long pair depends on which way round the rectangle is, a question that has occupied the International Rectangle Orientation Committee since 1958.^[1]

Rectangles are the most common shape in the built world, appearing in books, beds, bricks, screens and every door anyone has ever walked through, which is how most people have walked through a rectangle without realising.

Orientation

In 1958 the Committee met to decide whether a rectangle standing on its short side is a tall rectangle or a wide rectangle lying down. After 31 years of deliberation it ruled that it depends which way you are looking at it, and that everyone should look at it the same way. The ruling was printed on a rectangle and accidentally hung sideways.^[2]

Relationship to the square

Every square is a rectangle, but not every rectangle is a square. Rectangles find this unfair, and point out that nobody calls a square a short rectangle to its face. Circles are not involved and would like that noted.

Notable rectangles

• The door: a rectangle that opens.
• The bed: a rectangle you lie on.
• The book: a rectangle full of smaller rectangles.
• This page: a rectangle, currently being read.

See also

• Circle – not involved
• Door – a rectangle that opens
• Staircase – a stack of rectangles going up

References

1. International Rectangle Orientation Committee (1989). Final Report. Displayed sideways.
2. Oblong, O. (1974). Longer Than It Is Wide. Landscape Press. p. 1.