Mental Nuts-- Can You Crack 'em?

[BigV]

My new favorite obsession. It really is about geometry. When the puzzle says circle the tree, that's geometry. There's a plain unambiguous definition of a circle, likewise what is inside and what is outside the circle.

I'd love to understand the reasoning behind this different conclusion, really. I've heard lots of justifications, facing, semantics, parallel paths, ropes, turning, not turning, tree, etc etc. None of them stand up, or at least none have been convincing to me. I would like to be convinced, if it is really what you believe, that the squirrel has not been gone around. But nothing has done that yet.

Until then, the geometry of a circle, the semantic definition of a circle, remains the most convincing, truest answer.