Mind Puzzle

Posted on May 17, 2007
Filed Under For Magicians Only |

Ever since a friend showed this effect to me, some years ago, it has been one of my favorite tricks. Even though it very obviously depends more on mathematics than magic, it still has a cool touch to it. It is time for at small mind puzzle. The great thing here is that everyone can participate. You can either chose to follow the pictures on the screen, but I recommend you do the same thing as shown on the pictures in your own home, as this will give you the entire feeling of the effect. Here goes.

Go out and get a box of matches. Come back in front of the laptop, and let’s get started. First step is to put the matches out on the table as shown on the picture below. You will need a bunch of close to fifty matches, to do this. What’s important here is that the matches are lined up the same way as on the picture. Only the pile in the middle does not have to be the exact same number. Just be sure to have more than three matches in the middle pile. Now if you count the matches, you will see that each line in the square adds up to ten matches (ignore the matches in the middle for now).

Match1

Now what you are going to do is to take one match from the pile in the middle, and move it to the row on the right, as shown on the picture below.

Match2

Then move one match from the lower right corner to the pile next to it, on the left, as shown on the picture below.

Match3

Now we have just added one match from the middle pile to the rows around it. So somewhere there has to be one match more than before. So go ahead - count each row and see how many you got. The magic happens, and one match has just disappeared. Does this seem a bit strange?

Now take one match from the middle pile and put it into the top row as shown on the picture below.

Match4

Then move one match from upper left corner, down in the left side row, like in the picture.

Match5

Now once again, one match has been added to the rows, right? So let’s start counting. Once again, each row somehow adds up to ten matches.

Let’s do it one last time. Take one match from the middle pile and move it to the upper right corner as shown on the picture below.

Match6

Now move one match from the pile in the upper right corner to the closer to the middle of the top row and another match from the upper right corner further down in the right side row, as shown on the picture.

Match7

Yet again, one match has been added, which adds up to three matches in total. You know what to do. Start counting and get surprised.

That’s it for now guys. I will be writing more about magic and the different aspects around it, in the future. Until then, if you feel like reading more right away, go here to read my recommendation on a book about close-up magic written by Chris Kenner. Or give Itricks a visit. Here you will find a lot of useful and interesting posts.


Digg!

Comments

One Response to “Mind Puzzle”

  1. OctalMage on September 5th, 2007 5:41 pm

    Cool blog thanks for sharing!

Leave a Reply