How many stars can fit on the U.S. flag?

Check out this rather involved story about how to place 51 stars on the U.S. flag, in the event Puerto Rico were to become a state.


The story in Slate magazine is titled "13 Stripes and 51 stars: A mathematician figures out how to jam an extra star on the American flag."

I am not advocating one way or the other for or against statehood. But I know this is one of those ludicrous discussions that people have.

Do we really need a mathematician for this? Is it really that complicated? As my friend Tato Conrad said, "Just make them (the stars) smaller."

Now, that's a novel and simple idea.