take a piece of paper and draw a 5x5 square. You can split the block into 5 rows of 5 with 4 cuts. But that then leaves you with 5 individual rows of 5 squares. Yes, theoretically if you hold all the rows together you can then cut it out in 8 cuts, but if you cant hold the 5 rows together, you then have to make 4 more cuts on each row. So a 5x5 with 4 cuts gives you 5 seperate rows which then have to be broken down individually. [ ] 5x5 => 4 cuts => | | | | | (each pipe is a row of 5 squares) => 4 cuts per row (4*5) => 24 cuts