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The leprechaun
puzzle...
Here are
15 leprechauns drawn on three
pieces of card.
Swap the
two top pieces...
...
and a leprechaun vanishes
- where does he go?
One
explanation - how does it
work?
This is
a very clever drawing based
on a rearrangement of a dissection
of 15 lines.
You can
start from the basic maths
and see how to make the puzzle
as follows:
| Basic
principle
Draw
15 boxes on a piece
of
card as in the drawing.
Cut
the card in two. |
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|
Slide
the top card along to
line
up the top of box
1. With the bottom of
box
2. A box 'disappears'
because we arranged
the boxes around the
cut.
(The
total length of the
boxes is the same -
but now shared out over
14 new boxes.) |
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| Using
the principle in the puzzle
Draw
a new set of boxes as
before, but this time
change the order.
Notice
the sequence runs in
5s. |
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|
Put
a space between boxes
13
and 5 and boxes 12 and
4.
(This is needed to make
the
boxes line up properly.)
Cut
into two halves top
and bottom and cut the
top part before box
15. |
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| Swap
the top parts (as with
the leprechaun puzzle).
This
lines up the boxes in
the same order as when
we shifted them along
(2 with 3, 3 with 4
and so on).
A
box has 'disappeared'
again. |
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Final
touches - disguising the principle
To make
a 'leprechaun-type' puzzle,
change the scale of the boxes
and draw over them with cartoon
figures.
The drawings
and the change of scale help
to disguise what is happening.
Replace
all the boxes with figures:
TOP
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