It’s the Friday Puzzle!

The Essential Magic Conference has now uploaded all of the videos from all of the sessions, and you can watch them for just $75.  It’s a bargain, go for it!  OK, to the puzzle…..

Yesterday I saw a drinks machine that had three selections – Tea, Coffee or Random (Tea or Coffee).  However, the machine was wired up wrongly so that each button does not give what it claims. If each drink costs 50p, what is the minimum that you have to put into the machine to work out which button gives which selection?

As ever, please do NOT post your answers, but do say whether you have solved it and how long it took.

See you Monday!

Want to see something perfect?

Magician Richard McDougall showed me this at the Essential Magic Conference.  It is, in my opinion, perfect.  Take 4 minutes away from whatever you are doing and enjoy the genius…

Any thoughts?

Help name a new book…..

Physicist, author, TV presenter and friend Jim Al-Khalili has a new book out very soon.  The sub-title is ‘The Golden Age of Arabic Science’, and it was originally going to be called ‘House of Wisdom’ (a reference to a famous 9th Century Baghdad academy).  However, his publisher now wants to call the book Pathfinders (based on a quote from 14th Century economist and social scientist Ibn Khaldun).

We thought it would be a good idea to see what you thought.  So, vote now, which do you think is the better title, and help name a book!  Also, if you don’t like either title, feel free to suggest another!

The Mona Llama…..

After all of the tricky maths of the Friday Puzzle, I thought that it would be good to post something simple and fun.  So, how many animals can you find in this remarkable version of the Mona Lisa…..

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

And it’s a tricky one this week. Yesterday I went shopping and picked up four items. When I got to the till, the cashier added the price of the four items together and the bill was £7.11. I then noticed that I would get exactly the same total if I were to multiply the four prices. How much did each of the items cost?

As ever, please do NOT post your answer, but do say if you have solved it and how long it took. Solution on Monday!

You know when you just cannot believe your eyes…..

Here is a stunning version of the cafe wall illusion…..

It is difficult to believe, but all of the horizontal lines are straight and parallel.  Impressed?

What do you see when you look at this?

Be honest – what did you see?  Reveal after the break.

Amazing magic….

Just back from the Essential Magic Conference.  It was a great event, and many thanks to everyone who came online to watch.  One of the performers was the incredible Ponta the Smith.  He is the best coin magician I have ever seen.  Watch him here…..

Any thoughts?

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

How can you place the arithmetical signs ‘+’ and ‘-’ between the consecutive numbers 123456789 so that the end result is 100?  So, for example, you could go…..

12+34+56-7-89 , but that would make 6, so that doesn’t work.

Try to come up with the method that uses the least number of symbols.

As ever, please do NOT post your answers, but do feel free to say if you have a solution and how long it took.  See you Monday.

Update: @spacemagick has written to program to generate solutions and claims there are 11 solutions, of which one uses only 3 symbols!

EMC and lovely video

Today is the first day of the Essential Magic Conference.  I saw the conference set yesterday and it looks amazing.  Also, chatted to many of the 33 speakers and realised just what a broad set of topics are going to be covered.  You don’t have to be into magic to get something out of the event, so I hope that you will be able to join us online here.

This is a lovely video (via @emmakgreening).  A huge amount of work must have gone into it, but it is breathtaking.  Well worth a few minutes of anyone’s time!

Like it?

Bloody hell, can’t believe that these are the same…

This is a lovely variation on The Leaning Tower illusion. I can’t believe that these two photographs are identical….

Any idea why it works?

Which of these is the most distasteful?

OK, two very different things today – your job is to say which is the most distasteful and why (both via @emmakgreening).  First up is this horrible footage from an American game show host….

Second is this lovely graphic from the 1970s telling parents how to bring up boys and girls….

Which is the most distasteful and why?

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

This week the puzzle comes via Mike Heap and the wonderful ASKE organisation.

A few months ago I ran a classic puzzle along the lines of …..‘Jane has two children. One is a daughter. What’s the probability that her other child is also a daughter?’

Now, here is a second part to the puzzle…

‘Jane has two children. One is a daughter named Emma. What’s the probability that Jane has two daughters?’

As ever, please do NOT post your solutions, but do feel free to say whether you think you have solved it and how long it took. Answer on Monday.

P.S. Just to remind you that if you are into magic, I have 5 free online passes to give away to the Essential Magic Convention. To stand a chance of winning a pass, just email me with Harry Houdini’s real name. On Monday I will randomly choose 5 lucky winners and email them the code that they need to watch the event.

Competition and my favourite illusion….

Next week I will be speaking at the Essential Magic Convention.  This is an online event run by the amazingly talented Luis de Matos. It is going to be the TED conference of magic, with 33 magicians giving short talks about many different aspects of their art.  You can watch it all online here for just 55 Euros (and that includes DVDs of the talks!).

The good news is that I have 5 online passes to give away for free.  To stand a chance of winning a pass, just email me with Harry Houdini’s real name.  On Monday I will randomly choose 5 lucky winners and email them the code that they need to watch the event.

In the meantime, here is a video of one of my all time favourite illusions…..

Possibly the best thing I have ever seen…

Two MindF**k prints today. You may have to click on them to get them full size before they work.  First, the best illusion I have seen for a very long time….just relax your eyes and see what happens…

And this one is a nice idea but a tad odd (via @niklausgerber)
Which was your fav?  Did you get both of them?