An approximate solution to the title problem is presented, obtained by using the Rayleigh-Ritz method. The analysis is presented for the case of simply supported and clamped plates. For the case of a rigidly clamped plate results are presented of numerical experiments on minimizing the calculated value of the fundamental frequency coefficient by using Schmidt's approach. An experimental investigation is described on a clamped square plate with a free square, corner cut-out, which has led to the conclusion that the fundamental frequency coeficient remains practically invariant with respect to size when compared with the frequency coefficient of the fully clamped plate. A similar conclusion is arrived at by means of the mathematical model. The problem under consideration is important from a practical viewpoint since cut-outs of the type considered here are quite common in engineering practice.