Flags

[Dee-M-See]

Of all the nations taking part in this years world cup why is the Swiss Flag the odd one out

I don't know the answer to this Question

[Salty]

It's square - the others are rectangular.

[teacher1]

It is also the same as another flag - The red cross ?

[shammydodger]

Pedantry alert!

Salty is correct that the Swiss flag is square. However, it is also a rectangle. A rectangle is a quadrilateral where all four of the angles are right angles. A square falls under this definition, and is just the special case of a rectangle where all the sides are of equal length, as opposed to the general case where there are two pairs of opposite sides, equal in length with each other, but of differing length to the other pair of opposite sides. If you get my drift!

So, in this case, oblong would be a better term to use to describe the other flags (assuming they all are oblong, cos I haven't checked.) Yes, they are all rectangles, but that doesn't distinguish them from the Swiss flag. Not that this changes the thrust of what Salty meant. Sorry, Salty :)

[SaxyJag]

No, teacher1, the Red Cross flag is an inversion of the Swiss flag, adopted because its original HQ were in Switzerland (not sure if they still are).

[teacher1]

oops! saxyJag - you are perfectly correct - I must be "flagging" at this time of the night!

[Salty]

Hi Shammy,

Pedantry continued....

"Oblong" means longer in one direction than another, and includes such shapes as an elipse - the other flags are not elipses!

I'll rephrase my answer as "the Swiss flag is square, whilst the others are merely rectangular". It's the squareness that makes the Swiss flag odd, not the rectangular nature of the others (and as you say, of the Swiss flag too).

[shammydodger]

Agreed Salty

[shammydodger]

Salty. Except that the other flags ARE oblongs. That is, they are a subset of the universal set. Just because none of the other flags are ellipses, does not mean that they are not oblong and does not detract from what I said. Anyway, we both know what was meant by your first answer, as I acknowledged in my first post.

[mike b]

The only other square flag is The Vatican, but they presumably got knocked out in the prelims...