Down the rabbit hole…..

Two great videos for you today.  The first was sent to me by @wildbunny and is simply wonderful….

the second comes from @ianvisits and again, is so great

Which does it for you?

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

I have some train tracks very close to my house .  Everyday I go down to the tracks and wait for a train to pass.  There are two types of train – passenger trains and freight trains.  I have been going down to see the trains at random times for a few months now and 90% of the time I see a passenger train.  So far, so what?

Well, the other day I met the man in charge of the line, and he told me that 50% of the trains on the line are passenger trains and the other 50% are freight trains.

How can this be the case?

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

What do you see when you look at this?

Thanks to everyone who took part in the fun experiment yesterday.  There was a big difference between left and right handers, suggesting that handedness does indeed affect the perception of the duck-rabbit illusion.

The other day I came across this and it made me laugh.  What is the first thing you see when you look at this?

What do you see when you look at this….

Here is a well-known illusion that I have posted before.  Take a look at it.

There is some new research out suggesting that right and left handers see the image differently.  But is that really the case?  Indicate whether you first saw the duck or rabbit when you saw the image a few moments ago, and then vote using the appropriate poll below….

How many faces can you see?

This is lovely.  Apparently there are 16 faces in the picture – can you spot them?  If you click on the image it will become full size.  Have fun!

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

A friend of mine has 10 sheep, and they insist on standing in a circular pen like this…..

However, it turns out that all of the sheep don’t like one another, and so have also insisted that they are protected from each other by a wall.  The problem is that sheep pen walls are circular, and my friend can only afford three of them.  How can you draw three circles on the illustration to ensure that each of the sheep has its own space, protected from the others?

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

Answer on Monday!

Can you explain this ghost photo?

A few days ago I received this photo apparently containing a ghost. The person wrote (I have paraphrased this a bit):

“This photo was taken at my home. My daughter was standing. We were playing “Pin the tail on the donkey”. I had just spun her. I was standing in front of her taking the photo, my sister is in the background sitting on the other couch and our dog is standing next to my daughter. There was no one sitting there (on the couch). You will see the image of my deceased boyfriend clearly sitting on the sofa and later surrounding my daughter. Please let me know what you think.”

Any ideas?

Can you spot all of the errors?

OK, this is tricky. Apparently there are 32 errors in this picture…..

For example, the legs of the chair do not touch the ground. So, can we all work together and identify the other 31 by the end of today? Go……..

How many faces can you find?

Yesterday I drank a bottle of ‘Drink me’ and this happened….

Anyway, how many faces can you find in this picture….

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

If you happen to be up at the Edinburgh Festival then I am talking about the psychology of luck (it being Friday 13th) today at 6pm.  Details here.

OK, here is the Friday puzzle.  Can you punctuate the words in the sentences below so that they make sense?  None of the words are shown capitalized so as not to give any hints as to the beginning or ending of the sentences.

1) that that is is that that is not is not is it it is

2) James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

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

Impossible but true illusion

First, it would be great if you can spare 2 mins to take part in a new study on the psychology of presentations.  All you have to do is click here, and feel free to encourage friends and family.  Many thanks.

Second, here is an amazing illusion by Akiyoshi Kitaoka. The background to the orange wave appears different to the background behind the purple wave, but both backgrounds are actually white!

How weird are you?

Yesterday we played the word association game.

Today we are going to play the same game, but find out how weird you are by seeing the number of people who come up with the same response as you.

OK, here we go.  What is the first word that comes into your mind when I say……

…..BED…..

Now look at the list after the break to discover how weird you are.

Let’s all play word association

Today is Sigmund Freud’s birthday.  To celebrate, let’s all get those repressed thoughts out in the open by playing a huge game of word association.  I am going to start by giving you a word….

FOREST

….now, the first person to comment has to write the first word that comes into their head when they think of the word ‘forest’.  Then, the next person to comment looks at what the first person has written, and produces an association for that word (and, if you want, say why you think the word popped into your mind).

Let’s get hundreds of comments going and see where it all leads……

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

How can you divide this piece of land into four equally shaped pieces?

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

Observation test…..

Take a quick glance at the illustration below and decide whether there are more red ants than blue ants, more blue ants than red ants, or an equal number of red and blue ants….

What do you think?  Answer after the break.